Sector developments and company hires

EMEA
Florent Trouiller has joined Norton Rose Fulbright as a partner in its Luxembourg office. Trouiller practises tax law, with a particular focus on cross-border private equity and real estate investments and securitisation transactions. He was previously a partner at Dechert and before that spent 10 years at Allen & Overy in Luxembourg.

GARC deal expected
Intesa Sanpaolo has acquired a portfolio of performing mortgage loans for a nominal value of approximately €900m from the Italian branch of Barclays Bank Ireland. The mortgages, which are mainly for the purchase of first homes, were granted to Italian customers and are secured by residential properties located in Italy. Intesa says that the portfolio has a high potential for self-financing through the ISP OBG covered bond programme and a risk profile that is further limited by the expected purchase of first-loss protection under the GARC synthetic securitisation programme.

Governance issues
Banca IFIS has ended negotiations - which began in August - with Credito Fondiario regarding a partnership in the debt servicing and purchasing sector, due to the difficulties encountered in defining a negotiated agreement satisfactory for both parties in terms of governance. However, the firm stresses that the non-performing loan market continues to be of strategic importance to it and it aims to “maintain the right conditions in order to continue generating value in the future”, investing both in the acquisition of portfolios and in the activity of servicing.

Lotte Card risk eyed
The sale of Lotte Corporation’s majority stake in Korean credit card provider LotteCard Co to MBK Partners and Woori Bank - which control 60% and 20% of Lotte Card respectively – could negatively impact Lotte Card credit card ABS, according to Moody’s latest ‘Structured Thinking: Asia Pacific’ publication. The agency suggests that the Point-Plus Eleventh International securities will become riskier because the likelihood of support from the new majority shareholder to Lotte Card will be lower than from Lotte Corporation, given that MBK Partners is a private equity fund and focused on maximising its return on investment. The reduced parental support marginally increases the risk that Lotte Card will default and therefore cease servicing the credit card receivables backing its ABS deals or close credit card accounts. Commingling risk will also marginally increase if parental support declines.