Unstructured Finance

By Matthew Goldstein

Four months ago, the regulator for Fannie Mae announced with much fanfare that it would accept bids for 2,500 single-family homes owned by Fannie Mae. The process has drawn a lot of interest from hedge funds, private equity firms and other big money players, but it’s been a slow one.

However, it appears the Federal Housing Finance Agency has finally come up with a date for qualified bidders to submit bids for the deal. And that date is, (drum roll) June 7, say people familiar with the situation.

There’s been a lot of speculation about which firms will bid for these Fannie-owned homes. My incredibly well-sourced colleague Jenn Ablan and I have been on this from the start and will endeavor to find out as quickly as possible the names of some of the biggest players entering the market for foreclosed homes. Stay tuned.

By Matthew Goldstein and Jennifer Ablan

The state of Alaska is looking to cash in on the growing demand for renting out foreclosed single-family homes.

A spokeswoman for the $40 billion Alaska Permanent Fund recently approved a $400 million investment with a California-based company that specializes in buying foreclosed homes and renting them out. Laura Achee said the fund is still negotiating the terms of the deal with American Homes 4 Rent LLC.

The Alaska fund, which is managed by a state-owned corporation, is believed to be one of the first public investment arms to sink money into the market for foreclosed homes.

The latest offerings by our Sam Forgione include a little Bridgewater, PIMCO and Jamie.

From National Journal:

Jim Tankersley airs Nick Hanauer’s championing of the middle class after Hanauer’s TED Talk was pulled.

From Barron’s:

Ray Dalio explains why macro efforts to support the U.S. economy are “beautiful” in Sandra Ward’s interview.

Fund manager Anthony Scaramucci, also known as the “Mooch,” likes to bring big-name politicos to his annual hedge fund convention-cum-carouse, the Skybridge Alternatives Conference, or, as most simply call it: SALT.

Last year, Scaramucci procured former President George W. Bush to be SALT’s keynote speaker. This year, former vice-president Al Gore scored the keynote time-slot.

The enormous and palatial Grand Ballroom at the Bellagio Hotel was packed to the brim for Gore’s appearance, but Gore’s next date with SALT attendees was more exclusive. As was the case with Bush one year earlier, Gore’s talk was followed by a dinner for twenty or so handpicked guests at the Bellagio’s private Tuscany dining room.

A dreary looking day in the NYC environs today, but that won’t overshadow birthday celebrations and other good news too cheer! A big shout to all UF members today. Oh, and fight for your right to party. Here then is Sam Forgione’s suggested readings.

From The New York Times:

A former managing director of Bain Capital has a telling beef with art-history majors.

From AR:

Hedge fund managers are still leaving their safety zones for emerging markets, even as John Paulson is recovering from his Sino-Forest bet, writes Jan Alexander.

Nice weather today in NYC. Enjoy it today before Sunday’s deluge. Here’s Sam Forgione’s picks. You can now follow Sam on twitter @samuelforgione

From The New Yorker:

Nicholas Lemann explores new books that illustrate the ties between politics and the economy.

From BusinessWeek:

Lazard’s Michele Lamarche takes on the tough task of courting debt-strapped nations.

The €1 trillion in ultracheap three-year loans the ECB doled out in December and February was supposed to have stabilized the entire European banking system. It appears to be having the opposite effect.

European banks — especially those that rely on ECB LTRO financing — are bracing themselves for an imminent downgrade, according to an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:

While Moody’s hasn’t said whether and to what degree it will cut various banks’ ratings, officials at multiple top European banks said they expect their grades to be knocked down at least one notch…

A beautiful spring day in the NYC metro area. Let’s Go Mets! Here’s this weekend’s stories courtesy of Sam Forgione.

From The New York Times: 

Jennifer Medina reports that California’s economy is either booming and busting, depending on which city you’re in.

From The Nation: 

William Greider has some suggestions on how the Federal Reserve can work with politicians to improve the housing crisis.

By Matthew Goldstein

Wanna buy a foreclosed home on a the cheap?  Well, Bank of America has got one for you. Or to be precise, the big U.S. lender has got 556 formerly owner-occupied homes it is trying to unload right now in a bulk deal.

As my colleague Jennifer Ablan and I reported yesterday, BofA, for the second-time in five months, is seeking bids for a bulk sale of foreclosed homes. This second round is much bigger than the first and could be a sign the bank is moving aggressively to sell foreclosed homes with institutional investors eyeing the market.

After our story ran, a source provided a nice overview of the bulk deal that  BofA has  sought bids on–apparently the deadline for putting in a bid was April 4. According to the bulk sale fact sheet, BofA is trying to find buyers for pools of foreclosed homes in 7 states: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada and Texas.

David Swensen has been called “Yale’s $8 billion man” for outperforming the average university endowment by that amount during the first 20 years of his tenure as Yale’s Chief Investment Officer. Chalk that outperformance up to the success of what’s become known as the “Yale model,” or the insight that institutional investors like endowments or pension funds can achieve outsize returns by allocating a large chunk of their assets to hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and other alternative investments.

As Swensen explained in a lecture he gave to Yale MBAs in 2008 , the Yale model rests on two core tenets: 1) “an equity bias for portfolios with a long time horizon,” because equities and equity-like alternative investments tend to rise in value in the long run; and 2) diversification, because by spreading investments among several asset classes with varying degrees of liquidity, ”for any given level of risk, you can increase the return.”

These days, though, it seems both of Swensen’s credos have become passé in the community of corporate pension fund managers, as Reuters’ Sam Forgione reported late last week: