Sector developments and company hires

RMBS issuer sues Hussain
Clavis Securities has begun High Court proceedings against Rizwan Hussain, who issued letters in April - purportedly for and on behalf of the issuer - which described the purported termination of the appointments of HSBC as trustee and Bluestone Mortgages as treasurer and special servicer, in relation to the note programme. The issuer considers the purported terminations to be entirely invalid and of no effect, and Bluestone continues to act as the treasurer and special servicer.

The proceedings have been brought by the issuer, Clavis Options, Paivi Helena Whitaker, Intertrust Directors 1 and Intertrust Directors 2, Intertrust Management and Intertrust Corporate Services, against Hussain, Annabel Watson, Amanda Watson, Digital Asset Partners and Highbury Investments.

The proceedings are seeking relief, including: rectification of the register at Companies House in respect of the Clavis companies; declarations that the defendants do not have the statuses or positions that they purport to have in relation to the Clavis companies; declarations that the actions of the defendants are invalid and of no effect and declarations as to the current valid position; and injunctions preventing the defendants from taking any further actions in respect of the Clavis companies. The hearing for the claim has been listed in a three-day window commencing on 14 July.

In other news…

CLO platform buyout confirmed
Medalist Partners has accelerated a buyout option with JMP Group for its remaining stake in Medalist Partners Corporate Finance, a CLO platform with approximately US$1.2bn in assets under management. Medalist has further announced the formal incorporation of ESG criteria into its future CLO investment mandates on the platform. While largely consistent with an approach already being followed by the team, as part of the formal ESG initiative, Medalist has adopted specific guidelines that will be factored into the investment process. Medalist’s CLO platform will continue to be led by Craig Kitchin, Jeremy Phipps and Shawn O’Leary.

EMEA
KKR has opened a new office in Stockholm, Sweden, building on its investment track record in the Nordics and reflecting its growth ambitions for the region. The office will represent all KKR investment platforms - including private rquity, infrastructure, impact, real estate and credit - across the Nordic region.

Hans Arstad, director at KKR, will lead the Stockholm office. Carl Lithander, md at KKR in the client and partner group, will also be based in Stockholm and continue to lead fundraising activities and engagement with Nordic investors for the global KKR platform.

Michael Huertas has joined PwC as partner, head of financial institutions regulatory Europe, based in Frankfurt. His role involves helping clients navigate and realise opportunities arising across the EU’s regulatory framework and in relation to their capital markets transactions.

Huertas was previously partner and co-head of the European financial institutions regulatory practice group at Dentons. Before that, he worked at Baker McKenzie, Allen & Overy, Latham & Watkins and Lloyds.

North America
Joanna Suna has rejoined Cadwalader’s capital markets group as counsel in New York. Her practice focuses on advising issuers, underwriters, portfolio managers and monoline insurers on CLOs, securities repackagings and other types of complex structured products. Suna was a senior associate earlier in her career at Cadwalader and joins from Perkins Coie, where she was a senior counsel. Previously, she worked at Lowenstein Sandler and KPMG.

Two Harbors Investment Corp has given William Greenberg, the company’s president and ceo, the additional role of cio. The company entered into a mutually agreeable separation and release agreement with Matthew Koeppen, pursuant to which Koeppen will cease to serve as cio.

Greenberg has served as president and ceo of Two Harbors since June 2020 and as a director since September 2020. He previously served as co-cio from January 2020 to June 2020 and as co-deputy cio from June 2018 to January 2020.

Greenberg has over 25 years of experience managing portfolios of structured finance assets. Prior to serving as an investment professional for Two Harbors beginning in 2012, he was an md at UBS and Natixis.