Sector developments and company hires

IP transaction debuts
Aon has launched an intellectual property (IP) capital market solution with the close of an IP-backed ILS transaction, believed to be the largest such deal ever consummated. The deal involves agriculture technology company Indigo, which is borrowing over US$100m utilising its IP as collateral, with the value of that collateral insured by a group of insurance markets led by Markel Specialty. Hudson Structured Capital Management (HSCM) was the largest capacity provider on the transaction.

IP value is not well understood in the capital markets. While IP may be the most valuable asset a company owns, current accounting standards typically do not allow internally developed IP to be explicitly valued as part of a company's balance sheet. This accounting treatment - and historic lack of creditable valuation methodologies - results in most growth companies turning to dilutive equity to finance their growth. Aon's IP solution assesses and values IP assets, leveraging a proprietary IP analytics platform.

North America
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) has hired David Lindley to lead its CMO derivatives trading efforts, as part of the firm’s buildout of its MBS trading platform. He will be responsible for leading MUFG's new-issue agency CMO and MBS derivatives business, based in New York and reporting to Michael McCarthy, head of MBS and securitised products trading. Lindley joins from Daiwa Capital Markets and was previously md and head of CMO derivatives trading at Nomura, where he served as a member of the management team.