Derivs - Credit

Credit investors are taking off levered index positions and searching for fundamental credit plays.

The brief credit rally came to a halt this week as more disappointing earnings were revealed.

Cairn Capital, the USD9.6 billion London shop, opened its structured credit fund to external investors on April 1, and aims to grow assets in the offering to USD250-300 million this year.

Speaking at the China Derivatives Summit this week, Shen Bingxi, deputy director general of People’s Bank of China, suggested that rating agencies should be regulated if structures such as collateralized debt obligations are ever to reach China.

Lehman Brothers has been on a derivatives specialist hiring spree in Australia, setting up a trading, rates and commodities outfit and expanding its credit team.

Citigroup is marketing a jumbo balance sheet synthetic collateralized loan obligation.

Barclays Capital has fired eight staffers from its Asian credit operation, following hot on the heels of credit departures in London.

KBC Investments Cayman Islands V, part of KBC Group, has launched a synthetic collateralized loan obligation, Lancaster Place Finance Limited.

Structured Asset Investors has been removed as the manager for Longshore CDO Funding 2007-3.

Kazuhiko Toya, v.p. at JPMorgan in Tokyo, has joined SG Corporate & Investment Banking as head of credit products structuring in SG's fixed-income derivatives department.

A London-based asset manager has purchased a leveraged super senior tranche, its first investment in structured credit.

Markit has said it is unlikely to publish CMBX volumes, in spite of the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association's concern trading on the index is injecting volatility into the market.