mortgage paper is piling up -- story from another Greenwich hedge fund
Ellington Management Seeks Bids For Securities to Meet Margin Call
By ERIC WEINER Dow Jones Newswires (Oct 12)
Ellington Management Group, a Greenwich, Conn., hedge fund is selling
more than 200 positions in mortgage-backed securities Monday in an
attempt to meet a margin call, market sources said.
"Ellington Management Group has been involved in a concentrated effort
to respond to liquidity constraints in the mortgage-backed securities
markets," a spokesman for the fund in New York said, in a statement.
"During the past 48 hours, Ellington has conducted an orderly sale of
certain of its holdings that has produced attractive prices in light of current market conditions."
Executives in Ellington's Greenwich offices weren't immediately available for further comment. Ellington is headed by Michael Vranos, the former star mortgage trader at Kidder Peabody & Co. Margin calls are demands for additional collateral from creditors who have made loans for the purchase of securities.
The exact value and amount of securities being sold by the fund weren't immediately available. Sources said the positions were being circulated across Wall Street mortgage trading desks through a bid list, a means to solicit bids in the bond market.
A Wall Street trader said the securities are available for sale Monday, and it doesn't look as if the fund unloaded any positions over the weekend.
The available positions primarily are in IOs, or interest only, and POs, or principal only, securities -- derivatives linked to portions of the income stream from debt securities, the trader said. They were largely used as collateral for repurchase agreements. The trader said a number of dealers forced the margin call over the weekend.
It was unclear if Ellington was selling to positions just to make the margin call, or if the moves were part of an overall liquidation of the fund. |
