Sector developments and company hires

Cairo NPL disposal completed
doValue has completed Project Souq, the sale to Intrum of two non-performing loan portfolios of approximately €630m in aggregate GBV related to the Cairo 1 and Cairo 2 HAPS securitisation vehicles (SCI 8 June 2020).The transaction - which was structured, executed and completed by doValue Greece - allows the firm to accelerate its collection activity in Greece, while retaining the long-term servicing mandate on the two portfolios acquired by Intrum.

The disposal was implemented via doLook, the digital NPL trading platform that doValue has developed jointly with Debitos. Hellenic Finance acted as financial advisor for the sale process. Project Souq is one of the largest secondary sales of NPL portfolios in Europe and the first-ever Greek secondary NPL transaction undertaken on the doLook platform.

Separately, doValue has disclosed that the class A notes of UniCredit’s landmark Fino 1 Securitisation (SCI 9 February 2017) have been repaid, thanks to the portfolio’s strong collection performance. The firm assumed the roles of master servicer and special servicer on the deal.

In other news…

EMEA
Bank of America has promoted a newly-hired structured finance originations associate to vp. Nathan Levy will take on the new role after joining BofA just eight months ago from NatWest Markets, where he served as an associate in its securitised products team. Prior to this move in 2022, Levy held several other roles in the industry, including as an ABS credit structuring associate at ARA Venn and as a structured finance analyst at DBRS Morningstar.

Barclays has promoted securitised products financing trader Petter Wettestad to vp. Wettestad joined the bank in August 2021, having previously held the position of senior financial analyst in Frankfurt for DBRS Morningstar. He is based in London and will continue to support the securitised products financing team in his role as trader.

Howden CAP has hired banking and insurance lawyer Lee Hitge as an executive director, supporting the development of its capital management and insurance solutions around the distribution of insured loan assets through repacks, as well as portfolio risk transfer. Based in Howden’s London office, she joins from the Willis Towers Watson financial solutions structuring team, where she has been an executive director since 2019.

North America
Annaly co-founder Wellington Denahan is retiring from the company’s board after more than 25 years of service. Effective from the end of Annaly’s 2023 annual stakeholders meeting, Denahan will retire from her positions as vice chair of the board of directors, chair of the risk committee, member of the corporate responsibility committee and as a director of the company.
Denahan has supported and led Annaly since co-founding the firm in 1996, working to grow it from an agency mortgage REIT into a diversified housing finance lender and delivering US$24bn in dividends to shareholders. During her tenure, Denahan held numerous roles within the company, including serving as chairman of the board between 2012 and 2017, an executive chairman since 2015, a co-ceo in 2012 and as ceo between 2012 and 2015.

MUFG has recruited Jimmy Wilson as a director in its securitised product sales team, based in New York. Wilson was previously a director at Barclays, which he joined in July 2017, having worked in securitised product sales at Deutsche Bank and Jefferies before that.