Western Asset Management Co., or WAMCO, is planning to issue a collateralized debt obligation backed by a mix of structured finance assets, according to outside CDO and rating agency officials. The asset manager is no stranger to the ABS market, with this being the fourth ABS CDO in which it will act as collateral manager. A preliminary proposal for the deal calls for WAMCO to raise $500 million, which it will invest in a mixed bag of ABS. Deutsche Bank, which placed second in Thomson Financial's CDO bookrunner league tables for the first half of the year, is leading this deal, dubbed Coronado.
Ron Mass, portfolio manager of ABS CDOs at WAMCO in Pasadena, did not return a call and Michael Herzig, managing director of CDO distribution at Deutsche Bank in New York, declined to comment.