Putnam Investments is planning to issue roughly $550 million in collateralized debt obligation liabilities that will be backed by cash-flows from structured finance bonds, according to buy- and sell-side CDO professionals. The deal marks the third structured finance CDO of the year and fifth overall for Putnam, which is establishing a good performance track record for itself in structured products, they add. The Boston money manager started marketing the senior notes on the transaction last week, and has already acquired a portion of the asset-backed securities that will be repackaged in the actively managed deal, according to outside CDO officials.
Goldman Sachs is underwriting the transaction, dubbed Putnam Structured Product Funding, and has also led Putnam's previous two structured finance CDOs. Carl Bell, head of portfolio construction for structured products at Putnam in Boston, declined to comment on the Rule 144a offering and Greg Mount, head of CDOs at Goldman in New York, did not return a call.