Regulators Reveal PPIP Fund Managers

[Update 1 includes details on the FDIC’s legacy loans arm of the PPIP] The US Treasury Department officially unveiled the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP), on Wednesday releasing long-awaited details on the program. The PPIP is divided in two major programs — the securities branch and the loan branch — which together aim to clear mortgage-related securities and other toxic assets from banks’ balance sheets. In the “Legacy Securities” program, the Treasury will invest up to $30bn of equity and debt to match contributions by private investors in an effort to buy up so-called “legacy” securities — initially, commercial mortgage-backed and non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities. Treasury selected nine firms from more than 100 unique applications to act as fund managers for this program. The firms chosen are: AllianceBernstein and its sub-advisors Greenfield Partners and Rialto Capital Management; Angelo, Gordon & Co. and GE Capital Real Estate; BlackRock; Invesco, Marathon Asset Management, Oaktree Capital Management, RLJ Western Asset Management, The TCW Group and Wellington Management. The Treasury said in a joint statement that these fund managers will have up to 12 weeks to raise at least $500m of capital from private investors, and then the Treasury will match the equity capital. Each fund manager must also invest a minimum $20m of firm capital into the investment fund. Then the fund managers will be able to purchase eligible assets. The “Legacy Loans” program within the PPIP is designed to facilitate market-priced sales of toxic assets. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would oversee a number of vehicles that would purchase troubled assets from banks or directly from the FDIC. Private investors would invest equity capital through the program and the FDIC in turn would provide a guarantee for debt financing issued by these vehicles. The FDIC in June acknowledged the postponement of a previously planned pilot sale of assets by open banks as part of the program, but said the program itself would continue. FDIC said it will test the funding mechanism — modeled after that used by the Resolution Trust Corp. — during the summer and plans to solicit bids for the receivership asset sale in July. Write to Diana Golobay.