--Aaron Johnson
SMH Capital, a subsidiary of Houston-based Sanders Morris Harris, Thursday is auctioning off on behalf of Bank of New York $205 million of various mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations bonds. Bank of New York is trustee for all of the deals.
SMH, which specializes in handling the liquidation of assets in bankruptcy, started presiding over auctions of structured mortgage product assets about a year ago and has seen the business fluctuate along with the number of structured deals hitting events of default. "There was a surge in spring of last year that has slowed down," said Lee Olver, a fixed-income analyst at SMH. He declined to discuss the results of previous auctions.
About $159 million of the assets on the block are backed by pools of home equity loans from lenders that include American Home Mortgage, HSBC Mortgage Services, Countrywide, New Century, SunTrust Mortgage and IndyMac among others. The remaining $46 million includescollateralized mortgage obligations, collateralized loan obligations, commercial real estate CDOs, and CDOs squared.
A Bank of New York spokesman declined to comment.
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