Search results for

Loïc Fery, Asian head of credit derivatives at Crédit Agricole Indosuez in Hong Kong, relocated to London at the end of last month to assume a new role as co-head of global credit structuring. Fery said in this new position he will structure and promote synthetic credit transactions, including collateralized debt obligations, for the European market. He will continue to manage the Asian credit derivatives operation and will look to expand the business into Japan this year. Both Fery and Benjamin Jacquard, co-head of global credit structuring, who is based in Paris, report to Jean-Michel Beacco, global head of credit in Paris, according to Fery.

Sydney-based fund manager Hedge Funds of Australia, with AUD75 million (USD41.7 million) under management, is considering launching an onshore hedge fund next year that will look to use over-the-counter derivatives. "It's still the early days," said Spencer Young, managing director, noting that HFA is still in the planning stages. However, the firm is considering bringing an in-house managed fund to Australian investors. Young continued that such a fund would likely use OTC products, such as equity derivatives, but noted that it was too early to comment about specific products or strategies it would employ. A tentatively scheduled start date is the first quarter of 2003, noted Young.

Colonial First State Investments, the fund management arm of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, is looking to write credit-default swap protection on global names for its AUD1.2 billion (USD689 million) diversified credit fund. "It's an access and pricing issue," said Tony Adams, senior portfolio manager of credit funds in Sydney. "We'll use default swaps when they're cheaper than the physicals," he added.

Credit Suisse First Boston has hired Rick Selvala, an equity derivatives marketer from UBS Warburg, to sell over-the-counter products to retail and corporate clients, according to Michael Crooks, managing director and head of hedging and monetization at CSFB in New York. Selvala started at CSFB a couple of weeks ago. "This is a way to bolster our sales force," Crooks said, adding the hire is an indirect replacement for Amy Yamamoto, an equity derivatives marketer who resigned from CSFB earlier this year (DW, 3/2). Crooks said CSFB will make new hires on an opportunistic basis, declining to be more specific.

Deutsche Bank is growing its fixed-income derivatives marketing team as it expands into the mortgage and agency cash markets. The bank has hired Stephen Rye as an agency derivatives marketer in New York from Morgan Stanley, and plans to announce more hires soon, according to a spokesman. Rye will report to Tim Dowling, co-head of capital markets in the Americas. Dowling handles the derivatives portion of capital markets, the spokesman explained. Dowling referred calls to the spokesman and Rye was unavailable for comment.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has hired a pair of marketers from JPMorgan in Tokyo for its global debt division. Mitsuhide Shigihara, v.p. in fixed-income derivatives marketing, has joined as a director and Satoru Komaya, v.p. in credit marketing, has joined in a similar role. Shigihara said he will focus on marketing structured interest-rate and foreign exchange derivatives to Japanese firms, such as securities houses, while Komaya said he will target insurance companies and trust banks for products including private placement issuances and medium-term notes. Komaya continued that he will also start offering credit derivatives.

There are four generic forms of rated synthetic collateralized debt obligations: (1) Balance Sheet Static Synthetic CDOs, (2) Managed Static Synthetic CDOs, (3) Balance Sheet Variable Synthetic CDOs and (4) Managed Variable Synthetic CDOs. This article describes the structure of each synthetic CDO, highlights some of the features that an investor may prefer with respect to each and describes some of the documentation issues that may arise when structuring each type of CDO.

Italian loan house FinConsumo Banca plans to issue in the coming months the first 100% synthetic securitization of consumer loans. Maurizio Valfre, cfo in Turin, said the firm has a EUR1.5 billion (USD1.42 billion) loan portfolio and plans to issue two securitizations a year, with one being synthetic. Crédit Agricole Indosuez is structuring the deal, which will be based on a EUR300 million reference portfolio consisting of about 70,000 loans with average maturities of 24-27 months. Officials at CAI declined comment.

One-month implied volatility for dollar/yen options dropped last week after the Bank of Japan allayed investor uncertainty and bought approximately USD2 billion in line with its policy of maintaining a weak yen, according to foreign exchange options traders. "There seems to be a sense that the downside is protected and the [BOJ] is there," said one trader. One-month implied vol, which had been 9.2% at the start of the week, dropped to 8.7% Wednesday after the BOJ intervened through Japanese banks in the U.S. market, easing some uncertainty among fx players. On a side note, traders said it was unusual for the BoJ to buy dollars in the U.S.--it usually intervenes through European or Asian markets--and probably only did so because London was closed for a national vacation.

Imperial Tobacco Group has entered into interest-rate swaps to convert three recent bond offerings in synthetic floating rate debt. The U.K. tobacco company came to market two weeks ago with a EUR1.5 billion five-year bond, a EUR750 million three-year sale and a GBP350 million 10-year offering. In addition, it entered a currency swap in which it converted the sterling-denominated bond into a synthetic euro-denominated instrument, according to John Jones, group treasurer in Bristol.

Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corp., with JPY20 trillion (USD161 billion) in assets, plans to start selling credit protection for the first time to generate investment returns. It is talking to a number of banks, including Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan, and plans to pull the trigger on its first swap in the next six months, according to an official. The operation will start in London, and New York and Tokyo will follow if it is a success.