Sector developments and company hires

Moody’s has updated three commercial real estate sector methodologies, following requests for comments on the proposals in July. The rating agency has placed a number of US CMBS tranches on review for upgrade as a result.

One of the updates is in connection with Moody's methodology for rating US and Canadian conduit/fusion CMBS, which replaces the version from September 2020. As a result of the update, the agency expects to place approximately 68 tranches from 20 conduit/fusion transactions on review for upgrade. It also expects to place ratings on 20 FREMF structured pass-through (SPC) tranches from 10 Freddie Mac CMBS on review for upgrade based on their direct pass-through exposure to the underlying ratings on the affected conduit transactions.

Another of the updates relates to Moody’s methodology for rating large loan and single asset/single borrower (LL/SASB) CMBS, which also replaces the version from September 2020. As a result of the update, the agency expects to place 278 tranches from 60 LL/SASB transactions and eight non-pooled rake classes issued by four CMBS transactions on review for upgrade. Moody's also expects to place six tranches on review for upgrade from three US CRE CLO/CDO transactions that reference certain tranches within LL/SASB CMBS transactions.

In both of these updates, the agency has added a capitalisation rate adjustment to account for the interest rate environment; updated its legal analysis by specifying loan-level legal-risk adjustments and provided increased transparency on its analysis of transaction-level legal risks; and provided additional information on how it determines and applies other adjustments in its analysis.

The final update concerns Moody's methodology for evaluating CRE collateral by assessing sustainable net cashflow and values of major CRE property types and loans securitised in a CMBS or CRE CLO, which replaces the version from December 2016. In this update, the agency has included extensive editorial changes to enhance clarity and readability, and expanded the coverage of the methodology to include Japan. It notes that these updates do not change its methodological approach and there is no impact on current outstanding ratings as a result.

In other news…

EMEA

Ankura Consulting Group has announced a strategic investment form global investment firm, HPS Investment Partners (HPS). The investment will establish HPS as a minority equity owner in the firm, and value Ankura at US$1.5bn. Since initial investment from MDP in 2016, Ankura has grown to serve more than 3000 clients in more than 55 countries, with a team of over 1,500 employees. The latest investment was structured and arranged by MDP, and it is hoped will allow for further company growth.

Citadel has named Pablo Salame as its new co-cio, effective from 1 January 2022, following the retirement of James Yeh. Salame joined Citadel in 2019 as head of global credit, having previously served as vc and co-head of global markets at Goldman Sachs. In the new role, he will lead Citadel’s investment strategies work alongside ceo and co-cio Kenneth Griffin.

Deutsche Bank has appointed Olivier Vigneron as new cro, succeeding Stuart Lewis, effective from1 June 2022. Vigneron will initially join the bank as senior group director from 1 March next year, having previously served as cro at Natixis since 2020. He will bring over 20 years of experience in structured credit to Deutsche Bank, having begun his career at Goldman Sachs as a credit derivatives trader in 2000. Vigneron has served in several senior markets and risk management positions at UniCredit, BNP Paribas, and J.P Morgan - where he oversaw market risk management as cro for EMEA and Firmwide Risk Executive for Market Risk, and led on the implementation of the Basel III advanced capital models worldwide.