Come rain or shine, you can guarantee that, no matter what state the market is in, certain discussions will be a fixture of IMN and Afme’s Global ABS event for the rest of time. 1) Who is handing out the best conference freebies? And 2) Who has the best beach bar fiesta?
As it turned out, the dark grey clouds dumped their contents on the population Barcelona on Tuesday faster than investors dumping office CMBS when they realised hybrid working is a pretty neat long-term solution that is going to drastically shake up that market. So kudos to KBRA for their choice: rumour has it that the credit rating-themed umbrellas were flying off the shelves at their stand.
Yield Book’s branded towels probably come in second place, as they’re pretty handy whether you want to dry yourself off after a downpour or pat down the sweat if it heats up later in the week. We’re not sure one law firm’s gilets will get much use in Barcelona in June, but anything it takes to make securitization fashionable again is alright by us.
The conference itself was no damp squib of course, with a record 5,000 plus attendees. All our coverage is on our dedicated conference hub, but a few picks here:
- Quote of the day goes to Clinton Elliot of Pension Insurance Corporation, who insisted that working with insurers doesn’t mean “going on a date for one night”. No, “it’s a long term relationship.”
- After the bombastic return of the Permanent shelf, everyone is hoping that the love for Prime RMBS’ will also be durable. Lloyds’ Batool Arif reassures us, telling GlobalCapital that, with ”the TFSME closed and starting to roll off, large-scale prime issuance has returned”.
- The SRT industry is breathing a sigh of relief as it’s looking like Basel IV will not be as destructive as once feared.
- Funny times in CLO land. Once popular TMT companies are out of fashion having levered up during low rates, and now — perhaps counterintuitively — cyclical sectors are more popular amid higher rates.
If you missed anything else at the conference, KBRA has done a sterling job of summarising the day’s goings-on, and you can read it right here on the GlobalCapital website.
Back to the parties. In the true style of old-school hacks, between them the GlobalCapital team managed to tuck into plates of serrano ham and manchego several times over last night, such was the level of competition between banks and law firms to put on the best feast. It would seem unfair of us to judge which was the finest; we saw several jolly faces everywhere we went, so the hosts clearly did a good job offering delegates respite after an arduous day of meetings and panels.
But after a couple of furry encounters at one bank party, we were left wondering: who has the best hair in the European securitization market?Email us your answers and we might reveal our thoughts on Thursday morning.
