Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, a New York-based investor with more than $40 billion under management, is planning to add $300 million to that total by issuing collateralized debt obligation liabilities via Deutsche Bank Securities, according to several structured finance professionals. They say Fischer Francis will repackage asset-backed securities into the CDO structure. The deal, the firm's second CDO of structured finance securities, is being marketed as Commodore CDO II. Ken O'Donnell, the portfolio manager responsible for ABS at Fischer Francis, and Michael Lamont, an ABS CDO banker at Deutsche Bank, did not return calls.
At $300 million, the first version was also backed by structured finance and closed early last year; it was dubbed Commodore I. Deutsche Bank also underwrote that transaction, according to a Moody's Investors Service report on the first offering.