It was the first of two hectic weeks for GlobalCapital’s European securitization dynamic duo George Smith and Tom Hall. However, the UK securitization GC Live briefing, two Invisso conferences in two days, and our London Awards shindig were not going to stop them sitting down for their weekly chinwag about the happenings in the market.
Not least because there are signs of a pick-up in primary activity, even as broader markets found themselves somewhat shaken up by a host of geopolitical and macroeconomic headlines.
Primary markets push on, so far with limited interruption. But will it continue? Tom discusses his feature about how some in the market think a “stand-off” between issuers and investors is on the cards as activity picks up. There are already signs of weakness in CLOs, after all…
The one deal that had less than stellar execution last week was Bank of America’s latest Taurus CMBS. Tom got on his soapbox to write a leader that acts as a kind of epilogue to his previous weekly on CMBS, but strikes an encouraging tone. If anything, Taurus just shows that it is worth persevering with CMBS trades that aren’t from the logistics sector.
We would welcome nothing more than a flourishing CMBS primary market again. On the topic of green shoots, George looks at some early activity in Middle Eastern securitization, suggesting US banks might be getting a head start in that market versus their European rivals.
Elsewhere on the pod this week, the dynamic duo discussed auxmoney’s latest ABS — a curious case of a deal that is not a social bond, but comes with a social bond framework and second party opinion.
Plenty to ponder!