As the collateralized debt obligation sector continues to grow, banks and asset managers are beefing up their talent. On the flip side, both Standard & Poor’s Ratings Co. and Moody’s Investors Service are taking blows to their CDO groups.
From Moody’s, Sloan Walker jumped to HarbourView Asset Management Corp., the institutional subsidiary of OppenheimerFunds. Walker will be reporting to Bill Jaume, a senior vice president at HarbourView.
In the near term, HarbourView plans to launch HarbourView CBO III, a $350 million to $400 million collateralized bond obligation backed by mortgage- and asset-backed securities. Prudential Securities will act as underwriter.
“We definitely want to make this a core business for HarbourView,” Jaume said. “We brought Sloan in to help us build the business and set up the proper infrastructure to do multiple deals, and to get the technical depth to continue to grow the product.”
HarbourView closed its second CDO in mid-July. The $400 million deal is backed mostly by bank loans, though it contains a small portion of high-yield bonds as well. Prudential was lead manager on that deal.
The company’s first CDO was backed mostly by high-yield bonds, and closed last December. Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette underwrote the deal.
Also leaving Moody’s, Gerard O’Connor and Eun Choi followed former group-head Eileen Murphy (who left two months prior) over to Chase Securities. Once again reporting to Murphy, the two started working at Chase last Monday.
“Chase has made a commitment to be on the cutting edge of CDO transactions,” Murphy said. “The product knowledge and insights Eun and Gerard have gained from working on hundreds of CDO transactions will be invaluable in rounding out the existing team as Chase takes the CDO business to the highest level.”
Meanwhile Christopher Wilcox moved from Moody’s to the New York office of TD Securities. Wilcox joined as an associate reporting Fernando Guerrero.
Further downtown, S&P lost Ifty Hyder and Gene Kilgore to Barclays London. Both were directors in the CDO group, reporting to David Tescher.
