© 2026 Arizent. All rights reserved.

West LB christens Brightwater unit

Published 2 Min Read

WestLB has combined its New York-based portfolio management unit with WestAM, the German bank’s global asset management business.

The 21-person investment team is now operating as a registered investment advisor under the trade name Brightwater Capital Management. The group continues under the leadership of Managing Director Jim Galowski, who took over the portfolio in March 2002. Galowski has held senior trading and management positions with WestLB since he joined the firm in 1990.

The team’s most recent hire was Executive Director Patrick Goulard, who joined WestLB from Deutsche Bank late in 2004. Currently, Brightwater has $21 billion in assets under management. The assets include roughly $10 billion in high-grade CDOs via the Whitehawk and Blue Heron vehicles, as well as the Greyhawk Funding securities arbitrage conduit and the Harrier Finance structured investment vehicle.

The group’s most recent venture in the CDO universe was a $985 million offering from the Whitehawk vehicle led by Wachovia Securities. The transaction priced in August 2004, and is the only issuance off of that vehicle to date, Galowski said, adding that there are further deals in the pipeline for 2005. Blue Heron has sold nine CDOs from October 2001 through last February.

“We find it extremely difficult to understand how there are so many high-grade CDOs in the market. The current market for high-grade CDOs is not exactly favorable; as everybody knows, spreads have become very tight,” Galowski said. “However, we are optimistically cautious about the future of high grade ABS CDOs.”

Brightwater will keep its options open when choosing an underwriter for its CDOs. “We will continue to do our one-offs and see who offers us the best value. It all depends on where spreads go,” Galowski said.

WestAM’s global platform will enable Brightwater Capital Management to further expand its reach beyond the domestic market, Galowski said.

“As we developed into an asset liability manager, becoming a registered investment advisor was the most logical course,” Galwoski added. “This will be a more efficient structure to service our clients.”

Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.thomsonmedia.com http://www.asreport.com

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.

More From Asset Securitization Report

Wells Fargo Buys WestLB’s Subscription Finance Portfolio

Wells Fargo & Co. said it reached an agreement to acquire WestLB’s subscription finance portfolio worth approximately $6 billion in commitments. Subscription finance provides committed revolving and term loans as well as letters of credit mainly to private equity and real estate investment funds to facilitate the funds’ investment activities. The financing is secured by […]

Emerging Markets Navigate New Regulatory World

As with their counterparts in other areas of structured finance, emerging market players have been mulling over the question of where exactly their deals fit in the new regulatory landscapes of Western Europe and the U.S. Notwithstanding the cut-and-dried cases, such as a straight RMBS and CDOs – which on the cross-border front have become […]

Turkey’s Denizbank To Issue $300m Bond via WestLB

Turkey’s Denizbank is out with a $300 million structured deal consisting of five series, all scoring ‘BBB+(exp)’ from Fitch Ratings. West LB is the arranger. No word yet on whether private-sector investors are potential buyers but one market source said that a multilateral is buying at least a portion of the deal. In an interview […]

EBRD Finds Role for ABS in Funding Clients

In late December, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) launched the Mid-size Sustainable Energy Financing Facility (MidSEFF), designed to support renewable energy and industrial energy efficiency investments. Under this initiative, the EBRD has approved the disbursement of up to €300 million ($410 million) to four Turkish banks by either providing senior unsecured loans […]