Sector developments and company hires

Gryphon acquired in APAC expansion move
Barings has agreed to wholly acquire Australian structured finance manager Gryphon Capital Investments, in order to accelerate its expansion into the Asia Pacific region. The deal will also enable Gryphon to grow its investment platform by increasing its access to capital, Barings says.

Gryphon will be integrated into Barings' structured finance team, though it will continue to be led by portfolio managers Steven Fleming and Ashley Burtenshaw. There will be no changes to the team as a result of the deal.

Barings' structured finance platform currently has US$8.2bn of assets under management. After completion of the deal, Gryphon's AUM will add a further A$2.6bn to this total, currently equivalent to around US$1.7bn.

Gryphon invests across structured credit, but has a particular focus on the RMBS space. It manages SMAs on behalf of institutional clients ⁠- most of which are insurance and superannuation funds ⁠- as well as listed trust Gryphon Capital Income Trust.

Barings' global structured credit investment team is led by Melissa Ricco and Taryn Leonard, based in Charlotte and Boston respectively.

In other news…

TruPS CDOs disclose Silvergate exposure
EJF Investments has released a portfolio update, clarifying that it has no underlying exposure to SVB Financial Group or Signature Bank. However, the company has a small underlying exposure to Silvergate Capital Corporation, which announced its intention to wind down operations and voluntarily liquidate Silvergate Bank in an orderly manner on 8 March. This exposure is to a trust preferred security that resides in the collateral pools backing the TruPS Financials Note Securitization 2019-1 and TruPS Financials Note Securitization 2019-2 transactions.

The combined exposure is equivalent to less than 2.5% of the company's most recently published NAV on a look-through basis, prior to any recoveries. Due to the mechanics of the securitisations, the size of exposure does not automatically translate into a write-down in NAV of an equal amount.