Lehman Brothers plans to roll out a new collateralized debt obligation pricing tool. The tool, which will be presented to a "select group of investors" this week, is designed to help investors find value in mezzanine and subordinate securities, according to Sunita Ganapati, v.p. of CDO research. She says the new model will run Monte Carlo-style default scenarios on each of the underlying securities backing a CDO tranche and overlay them with a deal's capital structure. She argues that the pricing tool is innovative because it runs default scenarios on each of the underlying securities. Lehman's model will be applied to a broad cross-section of CDOs, including those backed by high-yield bonds, leveraged loans and investment-grade bonds. Bear Stearns became the first major CDO house to offer investors a CDO pricing tool earlier this year (BW, 6/22). However, its model can only be used to evaluate high-yield CDOs.
Lehman's model is meant for evaluating junior tranches in the growing secondary market, although it can also be used on senior tranches, Ganapati says, adding Lehman's CDO trading desk is already using the model and its intention is to increase flow through the desk. She says it's too early to tell how the model will be received, since investors haven't used it yet. Ganapati was the top-ranked CDO analyst on Institutional Investor magazine's 2002 All America Fixed-Income Research Team.