Sector developments and company hires

Sustainable infrastructure exposure offered
Bayfront Infrastructure Management has priced an infrastructure ABS via Bayfront Infrastructure Capital II (BIC II), a wholly owned and newly incorporated distribution vehicle. The transaction is backed by a US$401.2m portfolio of 27 project and infrastructure loans, diversified across 13 countries and eight industry sub-sectors, with approximately 46% of the portfolio considered eligible sustainable assets.

The deal comprises five classes of investment grade rated notes totalling US$361.1m, including a dedicated US$120m senior sustainability tranche. The proceeds from these class A1SU notes will be fully allocated to a portfolio of eligible green and social assets that meets the eligibility criteria stated in Bayfront’s Sustainable Finance Framework.

Rated Aaa by Moody’s, the class A1 and A1SU notes printed at 125bp and 120bp respectively. Both tranches have a legal final maturity of 11 January 2044.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank participated in the transaction as an anchor investor. Bayfront intends to retain the preference shares in its capacity as sponsor and retention holder, while its subsidiary BIM Asset Management will act as collateral manager. Citi, ING and Standard Chartered were joint global coordinators, with ING as sole sustainability structuring advisor and Citi as sole structuring advisor.

Since inception in November 2019, Bayfront has executed Memoranda of Understanding with 22 partner banks active in the Asia-Pacific region relating to collaboration on the takeout mechanism for project and infrastructure loans.

In other news…

EMEA
Kawai Chung has joined Intriva Capital as md, based in London. Chung was previously a partner at ARA Venn, responsible for capital markets and financing activities related to its European lending businesses and loan portfolios. Before Venn, he worked in asset-backed finance and ABS/mortgage strategy at RBS.

Impact allocation disclosed
Seelaus Asset Management has received an allocation of US$50m from Boise-based Micron Technology. The allocation - to Seelaus' agency MBS impact investment strategy - will seek to positively support underserved communities and underrepresented groups by increasing access to home ownership. 

The strategy, known as Support Housing Equality (SHE), utilises US government-backed MBS to generate a competitive return, while addressing the lending gap in these communities by investing in programmes specifically designed to provide access to capital. The SHE strategy offers investors a high degree of customisation on impact objectives, including the ability to target a specific geography or demographic, and will allow Micron to support predominantly Black communities in the Washington DC, Northern Virginia, Maryland and San Francisco Bay Area.

The investment marks the fourth allocation from Micron, totaling US$300m, to support impact investment initiatives, following earlier investments to diversity and inclusion managers and impact focused programmes.

Mortgage eVault prepped
ICE Mortgage Technology is set to deploy an eVault solution for secure storage of digital mortgages and notes, based upon technology acquired from DocMagic. The eVault technology will be integrated into ICE’s mortgage closing platform, Encompass eClose. Both ICE and DocMagic are committed to delivering technology to increase eClosing adoption in the mortgage industry.

North America
Academy Securities has hired Paul Staples as director of CMBS sales and trading. Staples has over 25 years of experience in finance and investment-linked work, including as the head of CMBS credit trading at Citi. Most recently, he was a managing partner at Pinesong Capital Advisors.

Chimera Investment Corporation has appointed Kevin Chavers to its board. Chavers will serve as chair of the compensation committee and on the risk committee of the company’s board. He has over 34 years of experience across multiple roles in the real estate finance and mortgage industry, including as md of BlackRock in the global fixed income and securitised asset investment team until April 2021.

Miller has hired Erik Manning as head of ILS, reporting to Charlie Simpson, head of Bermuda for the firm. Manning will concentrate on developing ILS and other insurance risk-to-capital solutions for the benefit of Miller’s clients. He has over 20 years’ experience in the sector and joins from Peak Capital, where he was ceo.

Pagaya has named Theodore Douglas as svp, head of innovation US. He was previously md, global head of fixed income capital markets at IHS Markit, and has also worked at Amundi Pioneer, Koch Industries, State Street, BNP Paribas and Bankers Trust.