Securitisation

We can debate whether the European Central Bank is behind the curve or not, but Christine Lagarde says rates will be in non-negative territory by September.

As we enter the New Year, we say goodbye to an old “friend” that has accompanied us (for better and for worse) since the inception of the UK ABS market in the late 1980s – Sterling LIBOR.

With a student housing CMBS deal recently brought to market, Kevin Law evaluates the sector’s outlook in the aftermath of COVID-19

BWIC – or bids wanted in competition – lists, are a unique characteristic of the ABS and CLO markets, where they are widely used in secondary trading when investors are looking to sell bonds.

Last week, Morgan Stanley successfully brought the first public German Multifamily CMBS deal (HAUS - Eloc 39) to market since 2013. Despite coming to the market in the middle of the summer, the deal has attracted strong demand across the capital stack.

We can model all kinds of credit risk as long as there is enough protection in the structure for investors to get comfortable with a degree of residual value risk.

After a hectic first half of the year, most investors, including us, were hoping for a dull summer to recharge our batteries, but it seems there’s no respite from the CLO machine.

It is quite rare that we recommend playing in the very bottom of the credit spectrum because CCC rated bonds are where at least 95% of all defaults come from, and are significantly more volatile than we would like.

Rates risk is not something we concern ourselves with too much in the European ABS market, so normally news of inverted yield curves and 30-year US Treasury yields dropping below 2% would largely wash over us. This is because pretty much all ABS bonds are floating rate, so there is no duration. Or is there?

“…everybody’s having fun. Look to the future now, it’s only just begun.”

On Monday my colleagues on TwentyFour’s Multi-Sector Bond desk published a blog on rising default risks in high yield credit. Dummen Orange, Douglas, Boparan, Moby, Galapagos and CMC Ravenna are some of the obvious under-pressure names held in loan funds and CLO portfolios that are trading at a significant discount in the market.

Changes in regulations are typically long and drawn out, but their impact can often be felt quite quickly. There is every chance that this could soon be the case in ABS markets.