Catamount Investment Group, the U.S. asset management arm of the Netherlands' NIB Capital Bank, is planning to repackage its portfolio of collateralized debt obligation investments into a CDO squared. Howard Hill, managing director of the structured credit boutique investor in Cos Cob, Conn., and a longtime veteran of the structured products market, says Catamount holds about $240 million in 36 single-A, loan and corporate bond CDO pieces from NIB's broader CDO portfolio. All of these are relatively generic cashflow deals, he says. Next, Catamount plans to gradually acquire more CDO collateral backed by loans and bonds, about $200 million worth, in the coming months. This will be done to add size to the existing portfolio, some of which is starting to mature. "It will take us most of the summer to get the collateral, we need to get up to $400 million," he says, referring to the expected size of the CDO squared.
The deal would be Catamount's first as a collateral manager and would not likely start being marketing until autumn at the earliest. Catamount has been in operation since the beginning of the year.