Securitization People and Markets

Managing director, lead portfolio manager of collateralized debt obligations and director of fixed-income research at State Street Research & Management. The Boston-based subsidiary of Metlife closed one asset-backed securities CDO last year--the $400 million Fort Point transaction.

Simon Adamson and Helen Rodriguez, two of Deutsche Bank's European research heads, have left the firm. Adamson, who headed European corporate and financial institution credit research, left last week, and Rodriguez, head of European high-yield research, left two weeks ago, according to a firm insider. It could not be learned if the pair have joined other firms.

Duke Street Capital Debt Management is planning to launch its second collateralized debt obligation, which will be backed by leveraged loans. Ian Hazelton, London-based chief executive, says the new deal, dubbed Duchess II, should close within the next six weeks. This deal will be slightly smaller than the E1 billion debut deal Duchess I, which closed in June 2001.

Several new issuers are expected to tap the high-yield homebuilding sector on the back of improving credit quality, according to two analysts who follow the sector. The whole sector is set to be moved up a notch by the rating agencies, says Rob Manowitz, analyst at UBS Warburg and a first-teamer on the 2002 Institutional Investor All-America Fixed-Income Team. Upgrades to existing issuers will open up the lower rungs of the ratings ladder to smaller regional players that may view the high-yield market as an opportunity to secure long-term fixed capital, Manowitz says. "There are probably something like a half dozen issuers out there that fit the characteristics the high-yield market is looking for," he argues. He declined to volunteer company names that fit this description.

Lehman Brothers last week lost a brace of mortgage-backed security professionals to two Wall Street rivals. Peeyush Misra, senior v.p.-collateralized mortgage obligation structurer and trader, left Lehman early last week to join Bear Stearns, where he will take a new position heading new issue structuring and trading. He declined to comment when reached at his desk.

Maureen D'Alleva has left Morgan Stanley, where she was v.p. and high-yield analyst covering a variety of sectors including chemicals, paper and forest products and metals and mining, to join New York-based hedge fund Angelo, Gordon & Co., as an analyst in the firm's collateralized loan obligation group, according to an analyst with knowledge of the move.

Danske Bank plans to add an originator to its London-based securitization team to ramp up its marketing efforts in Finland and Sweden. Geoff Simms, head of securitization, says one of his goals is to grow the firm's $1.5 billion asset-backed commercial paper conduit this year and to do that, another originator is necessary to aggressively market the firm's services. Danske Bank's speciality is in ABCP.

CRT Capital, a Stamford, Conn.-based junk and distressed bond dealer, has hired three senior professionals who left DrKW-Granchester when that firm sharply scaled back its business in December (BW, 12/15). CRT, which has specialized in distressed securities and busted convertibles, sees the cutbacks by Grantchester as an opportunity to make inroads in the mainstream high-yield market, according to Chris Young and Mike Vaughn, two of CRT's three managing members. The firm plans several mores hires in research, trading and particularly sales, says Young.

GoldenTree Asset Management has made a pair of new hires as it looks to continue growing assets. The firm hired Frank Jordan, a veteran high-yield salesman and the 1998 BondWeek sales executive of the year, to the new position of director of client services, according to a senior high-yield buy-sider with knowledge of the move. He will report to Leon Wagner, chairman of the New York-based firm, which in its three-year history has grown assets to just under $4 billion.