ING Capital Advisors priced notes last week and is expected to close this week a collateralized loan obligation, Endurance CLO, taking over management of an existing Chase Manhattan deal. Michael Campbell, managing director at ING Capital, said Endurance is a migration deal, whereby ING has assumed management of a $300 million portfolio of assets that was once a Chase sponsored synthetic deal. The existing leveraged loan portfolio, referred to in the market as KVH, was structured by Chase in 1998 with multiple tranches of notes sold to investors. Chase held the loans on its balance sheet, but the risk of losses on the loans was held by investors. Campbell declined to comment on why management was changing hands and on investor profiles.
The new deal, a traditional cash flow arbitrage structure, will be actively managed by ING and comprises the same leveraged loans as the old deal. The assets represent a variety of sectors and meet the same rating agency requirements as typical cash flow deals. There was only one tranche of notes sold to investors and it was wrapped with an MBIA triple-A rating to entice investors into the deal. Campbell referred all other structuring questions to officials at Chase, who did not return calls.