Securitization People and Markets

Citigroup/Schroder Salomon Smith Barney is seeking to rebuild and expand its European securitization research team. Richard Pagan, co-head of European credit research in London, says the firm is still discussing the size of the team, which had consisted of one analyst until Shaker Sundaram, then its only European securitization analyst, left to become a salesman at UBS Warburg (BW, 8/25). Since Sundaram's departure, Pagan says the firm has determined "a team of one is too small." Now, Citi/SSSB is looking for a securitization research head to replace Sundaram as well as a few other analysts.

David Weigert is joining Hartford Investment Management's asset-backed securities group as an ABS analyst with a special focus on home equity bonds, says Allan Berliant, ABS group chief at HIMCO, who hired him from Aeltus Investment Management. Weigert was an ABS trader at Aeltus, also located in Hartford. He could not be reached for comment. Weigert will report to Berliant and will start next Monday.

European securitization analysts are not overly concerned about the huge amount of asset-backed paper scheduled to hit the market this quarter. Analysts expect between E40-55 billion in new deals to price this quarter, but believe the market will be able to absorb it. The European ABS market saw a substantial amount of issuance last year and spreads did not widen, notes Robert Paterson, head of securitization research at Morgan Stanley in London. Last year, E56.4 billion in ABS paper was priced in the fourth quarter. Paterson says investors still consider asset-backeds to be a safe haven from corporate bond volatility. Approximately E83 billion in European ABS paper has been issued year-to-date. Analysts expect the total to reach between E125-135 billion by Dec. 31.

XL Capital Assurance, a New York-based financial guarantor, has added two analysts to its credit group. Delia Fance, group v.p. consumer products at ABN AMRO, joins as managing director, responsible for credit analysis of corporate bonds. She reports to Patrick Mathis, senior managing director and chief credit officer, who heads the credit group. Fance was unavailable to comment. She replaces Neil Pack, who has been promoted to head of West Coast public finance.

FTN Financial released collateralized mortgage obligation structuring veteran Charles Smart just seven months after being brought on to add to its nascent New York mortgage effort (BW, 2/3). Smart was not able to be reached. He had overseen the issuance of four seperate $250 million deals, transactions that had been highly profitable for the growing regional dealer, according to several FTN Financial insiders. Deke Iglehart, the Memphis-based head of fixed-income sales and trading, declined to comment, citing corporate policy. John Hanlon, the head of the CMO effort, was vacationing in Italy and was due back today.

Moody's Investors Service has hired Michael Gerdes, an investment manager in the asset-backed securities group at MetLife as a senior commercial mortgage-backed securities analyst in New York, says Tad Philipp, managing director and head of the CMBS group. Gerdes could not be reached for comment.

The Clinton Group, a New York-based hedge fund, has hired Robert Smalley, a banking analyst and head of corporate bond research at HSBC Securities, according to an official at HSBC. Smalley could not be reached. Thomas Schnepp, head of global fixed-income arbitrage at the Clinton Group, referred calls to Patrick O' Meara, a firm spokesman, who did not return calls.

IntesaBCI is structuring a jumbo residential mortgage-backed securitization, which it plans to launch within the next 30 days. The deal is rumoured to be E3-4 billion in size, and the Milan-based bank has not yet selected underwriters for the deal, according to a member of the bank's structuring team. The deal, if even over E2 billion, will be Italy's largest RMBS deal to date.

Morgan Stanley has hired Brian Jacoby as an executive director and investment-grade manufacturing analyst reporting to Ryan Marshall, global head of fixed-income credit research, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Jacoby joins from J. P. Morgan Securities, where he was the top-ranking manufacturing analyst on the Institutional Investor All-America Fixed-Income Research Team in 2001 and 2002. He could not be reached. Marshall declined to comment. Margaret Cannella, high-grade research head at J. P. Morgan, declined comment.