Another Fine Mezz

In this week's episode of Another Fine Mezz, Tom Lemmon reported from Miami at IMN and FIIN's ABS East 2023 conference, while the usual suspects, Victoria Thiele and George Smith, were given a well-earned rest. Jennifer Thomas, vice president and portfolio manager at investment firm Loomis Sayles joined the podcast in between her hectic schedule as her team looked for opportunities amidst an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop. GlobalCapital's US bureau chief, Oliver West made his first appearance on the podcast, from his vantage point of the exhibit hall. And, US RMBS and CMBS reporter Kunyi Yang also made her debut, explaining why 2024 could see a real tug of war in the office CMBS sector. Brooke Major-Reid, chief capital officer at fintech consumer lender Affirm also dropped in, alongside KBRA's head of structured finance research, Brian Ford. 

Tom Lemmon had his head in the clouds this week as he took off for Miami (if you’re at ABS East, get in touch for a meeting). So, it was up to Victoria Thiele and George Smith alone to discuss European securitization.Equity release mortgages have been securitized in mostly private transactions for a long time, but George has heard good reasons why they might be on the verge of progressing into a public market.While geopolitical tumult is shaking the market, Victoria discovered that uptier priming in European CLOs is about to lose its last sworn enemy among the triple-A investors.At the time of recording, the team was still thrilled about the prospect of George visiting London for the first time in three months. Unfortunately, storm Babet had other ideas and forced him to delay his trip by a week. The good news is: this gives keen market participants five more days to snap up a coffee drinking slot with him, so do reach out if you’re not meeting him already.

Over the past week, host Tom Lemmon has (almost) come to terms with being the wrong side of 30, and is ready to apply the wisdom of old age to European Securitization with reporters George Smith and Victoria Thiele.BPCE's prime French RMBS shocked bankers this week, but George Smith thinks it might be a sign that the market can finally move on from its summer struggles with the triple-As.Meanwhile, Victoria armed herself with a yellow marker and dug into the European Leveraged Finance Association’s new guide to CLO carbon reporting and found a number of green shoots. Finally, click this link to get access to GlobalCapital's 30-day free trial to get the full breakdown of everything discussed this week. 

Joel Holsinger, Co-head of alternative credit at Ares Management, discusses the private credit summit at ABS East 2023 and the growing influence of private credit on securitization. They also highlight Ares' focus on alternative credit and the importance of purpose in finance. The speakers engage in light banter and express excitement for an upcoming conference in Miami.

This week's episode of Another Fine Mezz was something of an international tour with a wrap of the annual TSI Congress in Berlin and a discussion about the upcoming ABS East conference in Miami. European ABS reporter George Smith was in Berlin last week and with the help of European CLO reporter (and German national) Victoria Thiele, discussed why this year's conference had a distinctly political tone. Meanwhile, Victoria talked through her scoop on Man GLG's return to CLO management and how CLO mezzanine investors are urging caution as arguments around documentation heats up. Finally, with IMN and FIIN's (the Fixed Income Investor Network) ABS East 2023 conference in Miami under three weeks away, Tom was joined by two guests to get the inside track. Adam Grainger, director of operations for FIIN and investor & issuer relations at IMN, and Joe Lau, chairman of FIIN and president and chief investment officer at LordCap discussed why Miami is the ultimate autumn venue. 

With GlobalCapital's CLO reporter Victoria Thiele taking in the last of the summer holidays, remaining podcast presenters George Smith and Tom Lemmon were left considering taking the show in a new creative direction. Away from team politics, the European ABS market continues to fire. Curiously, it seems the mezzanine notes are getting considerably hotter than the seniors. We try to explain why.Adding to the momentum, the French and German finance ministers publicly called for securitization to feature more prominently in the European capital market ecosystem. Whether this leads to any action any time soon, remains unclear. Finally, Another Fine Mezz welcomed its first guest of the new series as Katie Prideaux, director of sustainable investment analytics product at LSEG Analytics spoke about the evolution of ESG as it becomes an ever larger consideration for market participants.

Bleary-eyed, European ABS reporter George Smith returned for this week's episode of Another Fine Mezz after the birth of his first child three weeks ago.However, there was no gentle easing in as the European securitization market kicked into gear with a flurry of issuance.In particular, prime UK RMBS continued its resurgence with Principality Building Society yet another UK issuer that was back in the fold.In CLOs, it's also getting hectic, although not quite to the same degree. However, Victoria Thiele discussed how while issuance might be picking up for now, terrible arbitrage is likely to mean that any windows are narrow.Finally, with the podcast trio unable to "milk" George's fatherhood any more, as one market participant said to Victoria, the team looked for new areas of discussion.

At one point last week, Another Fine Mezz host Tom Lemmon worried he might be recording a podcast all alone as his colleagues got their last bits of summer holidays (and paternity leave) completed. However, CLO reporter Victoria Thiele was on hand to save the day. It was a timely intervention as the European ABS market reopened with 8 deals entering the pipeline last week. Santander kicked things off, pricing its second of the year from the prime UK RMBS shelf, Holmes Master Issuer 2023-2. But stealing the limelight was ING's Green Lion, a green-labeled prime Dutch RMBS. A welcome step for ESG-securitizations, but whether there are signs of a meaningful market beginning to grow is unclear. And finally in CLOs, Onex's head of credit Ronnie Jaber sat down with GlobalCapital to discuss his expectations for the rest of 2023. 

Another Fine Mezz remains only two thirds full as European ABS reporter George Smith enjoys fatherhood and sleep deprivation. Thankfully, securitization deputy editor Tom Lemmon was kept company by European CLO reporter Victoria Thiele. European Significant risk transfer (SRT) is set for another record year in 2023 after various regulatory disasters were averted. Meanwhile in the US, there is hope that banks will soon come to a compromise with regulators. Onex priced its first European CLO of the year, and was the first in the region to split the single 'B' tranche. However, the slightly strange ratings revealed a mystery investor on the senior notes.