Fresh on the heels of recent upgrades from Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings, New York-based C-BASS (short for Credit-Based Asset Servicing & Securitization) has begun marketing another collateralized debt obligation of structured finance assets, according to several market participants. The collateral manager is shopping $350 million in CDO notes via lead-manager Wachovia Securities, with the proceeds earmarked to buy a mix of asset-backeds. In the last month, the two rating agencies have upgraded tranches of C-BASS's third ABS CDO--a move that stood out since the vast majority of CDO ratings actions are downgrades. One market player says the upgrades will give C-BASS better pricing power in this latest deal, which he predicts will receive strong demand given its track record.
Landon Parsons, senior v.p. at C-BASS in charge of structured finance CDOs, and Russ Andrews, managing director and head of the structured products syndicate desk at Wachovia, did not return calls.
This latest deal is C-BASS' seventh cash flow structured finance CDO. Westdeutsche Landesank has done the most at eight ABS CDOs, according to research from Credit Suisse First Boston.