Sector developments and company hires

Aircraft ratings review

Moody’s has published a new overview which examines ABS issued in the US since 2013, backed primarily by commercial aircraft and their associated leases. The report details an asset description and its structure as well as asset-related credit risks in securities backed by aircraft and related leases. In addition, Moody’s has issued a Request for Comment (RFC) to market participants seeking feedback for the rating agency’s proposed global approach to rating ABS backed by pools of aircraft and their associated leases.

If the methodology is adopted as proposed, Moody’s expects the proposed approach to have no impact on current ratings of aircraft ABS transactions it rates. The RFC is open through 17 October, 2019.

Credit opps fund closed

AnaCap Financial Partners, a leading European dedicated financial services specialist investor, is pleased to announce the final close on its fourth credit opportunities fund, raising a total of €1bn. AnaCap Credit Opportunities IV was oversubscribed following strong interest from both existing and new investors and is approximately 70% larger than its predecessor.

CMBS NOI slowing

Net operating income (NOI) for properties securitised within the Fitch-rated US CMBS multiborrower universe increased an average of 1.9% in 2018, according to Fitch Ratings. The overall growth rate in NOI, albeit positive, has slowed for the second year in a row. The growth rates were 2.1% in 2017 and 3.4% in 2016. For properties within Fitch's rated universe that reported financials in both 2017 and 2018, approximately 60% by loan count reported an increase in NOI. Similar to 2017, all major property types experienced some level of NOI growth in 2018, with the exception of hotels which had a nominal decline. Again this year, self-storage had the greatest NOI growth rate at 3.7%. Hotels experienced a 0.2% decline, an improvement over last year's 0.5% decline. Other property types had the following growth rates: industrial (2.9%), multifamily (2.5%), office (1.6%), and retail (0.8%).

SC fund launch

Permira Debt Managers has closed its fifth structured credit fund Permira Sigma V. Sigma V will continue the Sigma strategy, investing long-term capital in European CLOs, in both the primary and secondary markets. The Fund specialises in the most junior parts of the CLO capital structure where PDM’s credit-led approach provides the greatest differentiation. The fund has already made several investments, predominantly in the secondary market, that are generating highly attractive cash yields.

Structured note firm launch

Marex Spectron, has launched Marex Financial Products, a structured note business that broadens its range of product offerings and helps diversify the firm’s funding. Marex Financial Products is part of Marex Solutions, the firm’s OTC derivatives arm, and leverages Solutions’ fast growing fintech platform which was initially deployed for OTC commodity hedging. This gives investors the ability to build their own structured notes across numerous asset classes, with a range of payoffs and underlyings.  As part of Marex Spectron, Marex Financial Products is the first non-bank affiliated structured note issuer to hold a S&P investment grade rating. Marex Financial Products is headed by Joost Burgerhout, former managing director at Société Générale, who is joined by five others from Société Générale, one from Morgan Stanley and another from Hellier Capital.