![]() ![]() Over its steady progression and maturity, the firm has distanced itself from the hedge fund arena, firm CFO Brian Breakstone said. “We tend to be the deal oriented guys in the weeds that look at every trade and approve every ticket,” he said. In doing so, the duo continues to approve “unilaterally every trade” as it did when it was first established. “So rather than us looking at a mortgage pool and running in third-party information provided with a 60-day lag, we are actually in front in some of the issues, in particular mortgage credit.”Īlso to note, Capsse highlighted that he and Ross sit in the bullpen with the rest of the Waterfall team, straying from the stereotypical owner and employee stigma. “We knew about the foreclosure crisis that was pending three to four weeks before it hit the press, and reason for that is because we have relationships with servicers and we knew these problems were emerging,” he said. The other side of the “house” works to basically capitalize “on the single largest distressed opportunity globally right now, which is the residential non-performing loan market,” the WAM principal said.įurthermore, as evidence of its separation from the credit manager norm, Capasse said that in its research, the firm actually talks and establishes relationships with services in loan pools rather than relying on the industry’s generic statistical tools. “As opposed to a one-trick pony mortgage CDO manager,” Capasse explained, “we tend to look at the world in relative value basis across all ABS sectors.” Alternately, the former Nomura Securities and Greenwich Capital official added that the firm initiates “direct origination” where it approaches issuers directly to allow them to “participate in the construction of a securitization.” Presently, it provides two primary strategies: high yield ABS bonds and residential and small non-performing loans.Ĭapasse explained the first piece of the high yield and distressed ABS pie is to look at bonds in the secondary market, on a relative basis across all 60 ABS sectors. Through these first steps, the firm has flourished into a 30-person effort, where 20 focus on investment management and analysis, and the remaining personnel are dispersed in legal, marketing finance and investor relations. Sass to offer its first opportunistic ABS distressed hedge fund, the “Waterfall Eden Fund,” which targeted residential mortgage, home equity ABS and other similar strategies. Sass, which now as an affiliate of the New York-based investment management firm, WAM offers high yield ABS strategies.Īt its birth in 2005, WAM partnered with M.D. After talking to a number of seeding firms, they connected with M.D. That opportunity was their joint venture Waterfall Asset Management (WAM). “Jack called me up and said there was an opportunity,” Capasse said in an interview last month. Despite these personal achievements, the securitization market team coupled again in late 2004. Years later, Ross proved to create his own specialty broker/dealer Licent Capital and Capasse spent some time managing principal financial groups at Macquarie Securities. More importantly, the asset-backed securities (ABS) “pioneers” linked up to create the financial services and management conglomerate’s ABS Group. Additionally, with our deep expertise and ability to craft flexible capital solutions we believe we have considerable competitive advantages as we pursue that opportunity on behalf of our investors.In the mid-1980’s to the early 1990’s, Tom Capasse and Jack Ross worked together at Merrill Lynch the duo handled and initiated some of the earliest investment transactions that helped to establish the securitization market. There is a tremendous opportunity for private debt offerings and opportunistic financing across the region, particularly with its growing middle market and regulatory changes. Waterfall Co-Founders and Managing Partners Jack Ross and Tom Capasse said, “We are thrilled to continue our global growth by establishing a physical presence in Asia. Waterfall’s Hong Kong office will focus on identifying opportunities to leverage the firm’s differentiated capabilities in structured and securitized markets to provide private debt solutions for APAC non-bank financial institutions, middle market corporates and real estate-related borrowers. Alistair Ho, who recently joined the firm as Managing Director and Head of Asia-Pacific (“APAC”), has more than 18 years of experience in the region’s credit markets, will lead the office. (Press Release) - Waterfall Asset Management, an alternative asset manager, today announced the establishment of its Hong Kong office to enhance its capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region. Waterfall Asset Management Establishes Asia-Pacific Presence with Hong Kong Office and Senior Hire ![]()
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