Securitization People and Markets

Oceana Media Finance, a newly formed specialty finance company that will provide asset-backed film financing, today received an investment of $100 million in equity capital from American Capital Strategies affiliate American Capital Equity Fund.

UBS has hired Ke Yin from RBS Greenwich Capital as an analyst in its fixed-income team.

Davis Polk & Wardwell has promoted Bjorn Bjerke to partner. Bjerke is a corporate lawyer specializing in structured products and derivatives, including asset-backed securities, fund-linked instruments and credit-based arrangements. Bjerke recently represented large financial institutions in developing various fund-linked structures and derivative trading platforms and establishing synthetic CDO structures. He is one of fifteen members of the firm to be promoted to partner, effective July 1.

CirclePoint Asset Management has hired Suzanne Saurack as a mortgage-backed securities portfolio manager.

Keith Ashton, head of structured credit at TIAA-CREF, has left the company.

Chotin Asset Management has hired Eric Knab and Isaia Carucci to help manage its collateralized debt obligation.

Eurohypo has hired Ahsan Ellahi from HSBC to lead its new European structured finance effort.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has made two senior appointments in its structuring and origination and asset-backed securities research groups.

With Bear Stearns putting up $3.2 billion to stave off collapse at its High-Grade Structured Credit Fund and Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank auctioning off the hedge fund’s assets, the subprime meltdown looks like it may claim many of this year’s bonuses. According to industry analysts however, that may not be the case – unless you’re in securitization or you work at Bear Stearns. “I don’t think I’d like to be a mortgage-backed trader right now, and I trust the collateralized debt obligation guys are wondering whether they should move into equity derivatives, but this is a relatively modest sector," says Brad Hintz, analyst at Sanford Bernstein in New York (and former Lehman CFO). "Outside mortgaged-backed businesses, Bear Stearns and Lehman, I don't see it's going to be material for other players at all.”