UBS and Paris-based AXA Investment Managers closed a second tap of a collateralized debt obligation equity fund July 21. The closed-end fund, called Opera, first closed at USD190 million in March and now totals USD400 million, according to officials close to the deal.
Opera is managed by AXA's CDO Invest group, which is dedicated to investing in diversified CDO equity. Alexandre Martin-Min and Stephane Lapiquonne, senior portfolio managers at AXA in Paris, could not be reached by press time and Jim Stehli, managing director and head of the global CDO group at UBS in New York, declined to comment on details of the deal. He noted, however, the firm has seen strong interest in the fund and is looking to hire additional staffers to work on similar exotic or alternative CDO products.
UBS is set to build existing subsets of its global CDO and structured finance businesses by about 50% over the next few months. "It's a growing business," said Stehli. "We need more people to do more things."
