First Chicago Tokio Marine Financial Products is looking to issue at least two synthetic collateralized debt obligations in Japan by year-end, according to Takeshi Yoshikawa, ceo in Tokyo. Yoshikawa said the firm completed its first CDO in Japan in March, a USD300 million deal, and believes FCTM will issue additional CDOs of up to USD500 million. He continued that the portfolio will likely contain Japanese credits as well as global names to insure diversity, but will be denominated in dollars.
"It took us a year to build up the infrastructure," said Yoshikawa, adding now the firm has the staff and systems in place it will look to become more active in credit derivatives structuring. The boutique set up its credit desk in Japan last year, first focusing on credit-linked notes (DW, 7/8). Yoshikawa continued that the firm will likely hire two additional structurers in the coming months for the nascent desk.
