Securitization People and Markets

The International Finance Corporation, which promotes the development of capital markets in developing markets, is seeking a structured product specialist. The new hire will be a member of the IFC's structured finance group in Washington, D.C., according to market officials. Structured finance officials at the IFC were not available for comment and a spokeswoman was unable to respond to inquiries. The new hire will be responsible for structuring, modeling and executing structured transactions in several asset classes including senior debt, mortgages and trade finance receivables.

A weaker-than-expected earnings picture for energy service providers should cause buy-siders to reevaluate credits such as Trico Marine Services, Hornbeck Offshore Services and Grey Wolf, according to Christy Parsons, high-yield energy analyst at CIBC World Markets.

Scotia Capital has merged its U.S. high-yield and high-grade trading, sales, research and origination businesses, according to Frank Pinon, managing director and former head of high grade. The move was made to cut costs and better address the needs of clients, who are increasingly investing across the credit spectrum, Pinon says. He now becomes co-head of the U.S. credit business with Amil Schiaffino, managing director and the former high-yield head.

Salomon Smith Barney has hired three mortgage veterans to boost its efforts in sub-prime mortgage backed security origination, according to a memo obtained by BondWeek. Evan Mitnick joins from Greenwich Capital Markets, Randy Appleyard comes from AGS Financial and Ken Mulford joins from Merrill Lynch. The three will be v.p.s and report to Susan Mills, the director of the firm's mortgage origination efforts. Mills says the hires are to fill the gaps left by the departures of Jay Lown and Christine LaVelle several months ago. She says that the hires, who average 10-15 years of MBS origination experience, are also congruent with the firm's decision to focus more effort in the whole loan origination area, noting that future additions to the group would be at the junior level.

Salomon Smith Barney has formed a new collateralized debt obligation group called Global Portfolio Solutions by merging the cash flow and synthetic businesses at a global level. New York-based Janice Warne and Sumit Roy have been named global co-heads of the new group. They both keep their former assignments in addition to co-heading the new group. Warne continues to head global structured bonds, which is comprised of private placement, leasing securitization, project finance and enhanced equipment trust certificates. Roy keeps his global head of credit derivative hat as well. Rick Caplan, Nestor Dominguez and Doug Warren will co-head the U.S. part of the new CDO group out of New York while Tim Beaulac and Alan Shaffran will co-head the European component from London. All five report to Warne and Roy. They either did not return calls or declined to comment. Dan Noonan, a firm spokesman, declined to comment.

As the broad sell-off continues in high-yield telecom, a West coast money manager has recently added to its holdings of Crown Castle International. A portfolio manager at the firm argues that the $900 million in cash that the communications tower company has on its balance sheet gives it a more than sufficient cushion to support its capital expenditures and still weather the industry downturn.

Rabobank has hired Steve Swallow as director of credit for its structured investment vehicle. He joins from Barclays Capital where he was an associate director covering European commercial mortgage-backed securitizations and whole business deals. Swallow, who left Barclays earlier this month, joins a former Abbey National colleague, Alistair Lumsden, according to people familiar with the move. Rabobank is seeking an additional portfolio manager for the SIV, which will bring the team to six. Lumsden and William Lloyd, managing director and global head of securitization research at Barclays, declined to comment. Barclays has six securitization analysts based in London. Swallow could not be reached.

The three major ratings agencies are taking steps to address the roles of corporate governance and accounting practices in the credit rating process. The action is a direct consequence of the recent spate of corporate blow-ups. "Some people have suggested that corporate governance is beyond the legitimate part of credit analysis, but poor corporate governance and aggressive accounting often go hand-in-hand," says Christopher Mahoney, senior managing director at Moody's Investors Service in New York.

Charter Communications saw its 8.625% notes of '09 slide 10 points to a 54 bid. One trader blamed a drop in the company's equity price following a recent downgrade by Jessica Reif Cohen, an equity analyst at Merrill Lynch. In her report, Cohen cited accounting-related concerns. Adelpia Communications' 10.875% notes of '10 dropped seven points to 30.