Securitization People and Markets

Mimi Eng, a v.p. in the structured product group at J.P. Morgan Securities, was recently laid off, says a collateralized debt obligation official at the firm. She was a CDO structurer, reporting to Romita Shetty, managing director and head of the global CDO business for the firm. Eng could not be reached for comment. Shetty did not return calls seeking comment on whether Eng's spot will be filled.

The New York-based high-grade fixed-income team of OppenheimerFunds will relocate to Boston in the first quarter, says Ben Gord, a mortgage-backed securities portfolio manager. Gord, as well as Angelo Manioudakis, head of the investment-grade team and to whom Gord reports, are part of the 10-15 staffers scheduled for the relocation. Others include Bob Behal, asset-backed securities portfolio manager, and Chuck Moon, investment-grade corporate portfolio manager. Manioudakis' team overseas high-grade corporates, agencies, Treasuries, ABS and MBS.

A pair of sell-side paper industry analysts say spreads could still widen on bonds of newsprint manufacturing companies even though they tightened following last week's downgrades by Moody's Investors Service of the top two North American producers, Bowater Inc. and Abitibi-Consolidated. Mark Altherr, analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, remains cautious on the names even though both high-yield and high-grade credits have been improving in recent weeks. "It's hard to go against the flow, but I see no near-term support for credit improvement in these names. If spreads in general come under pressure, these will come under a lot of pressure," he says.

Guido Lombardo, a managing director at Morgan Stanley, has moved to Rome to join the Italian banking team, which handles corporate finance relationship management, says a firm spokesman. He now reports to Ricardo Pavoncelli, head of Italian investment banking. Lombardo will retain his Italian securitization clients.

FleetBoston Financial has hired Joseph Mackiewicz as managing director and head of asset securitization. He joins from Citigroup where he was a managing director in the global securitized markets group. Calls to Mackiewicz were referred to Alison Gibbs, a spokeswoman with the Boston-based bank. Gibbs says the position is a newly created one.

A sell-side analyst and an investor have concerns about the high leverage and asbestos-related woes of Washington State-based Weyerhauser Co., a diversified forest products manufacturer, but disagree on how to add exposure in the sector.

Cofiri, the Rome-based merchant bank, is planning to start a securitization business in Italy, according to a senior official at the firm. The firm is making the move to capitalize on what has become a lucrative business in Italy, which now ranks closely behind the U.K. in terms of securitization market-size.

Despite a drop-off in issuance volume this year, securitization analysts and bankers say there is still room for growth in the Italian non-performing loans (NPLs) market, which is good news for banks looking to clean up their balance sheets. However, because the NPL sector has gained the reputation for experiencing many downgrades and having a lack of transparency, they say the rebound will not be immediate. "It's a sector characterized by upgrades and downgrades, but the upgrades do not seem to catch the market's attention," says William Ross, head of European securitization research at ABN AMRO.

Deutsche Bank has recently completed setting up a global credit arbitrage investment arm to invest in fixed-income securities and then either repackage or keep them on its balance sheet, according to BW sister publication Derivatives Week. The firm, dubbed Winchester Capital Principal Finance, could have a balance sheet topping hundreds of millions of dollars, according to market officials. Market officials said Deutsche Bank decided to set this up now because the CDO market has reached a size where it makes sense to have an independent entity investing in different CDOs. Another official speculated that Deutsche Bank had not turned its attention to this before because it had made enough money from its structuring desk, however now that CDOs are becoming harder to shift and margins are decreasing it is looking for new opportunities.