Category: Credit

Fund gives investors access to global corporate debt

Post author By Dr. Finance
Post date December 3, 2013

Franklin Square Capital Partners Launches New Global Credit Alternative

FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund gives investors access to global corporate debt

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 2, 2013, Franklin Square Capital Partners, a leading manager of alternative investment funds, announced the launch of its latest offering, FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund, an unlisted closed-end fund that invests primarily in global credit. The Fund seeks to generate an attractive total return, while also focusing on capital preservation, by investing in loans, bonds and other credit instruments of public and private companies, with a strong focus on the European and U.S. markets.

This marks the fourth fund launched by Franklin Square, which now manages more than $9 billion in assets. “Our goal at Franklin Square is to provide individual and smaller institutional investors with the same investment access and investor protections that larger institutions demand,” said Michael C. Forman, CEO of Franklin Square. “This new fund adds to our stable of endowment-style funds and provides our investors access to what we expect will be high-performing global opportunities.”

Among the Fund’s key investment strategies, FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund will employ an event-driven approach, focusing on companies that it believes are undervalued by the market. The Fund intends to take advantage of dislocations that arise in the credit markets resulting from impending corporate events such as mergers, acquisitions or corporate reorganizations. These events can create attractive investment opportunities when the view of the Fund’s managers differs from that of the general market.

FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund is sub-advised by GSO Capital Partners LP, the credit platform of Blackstone. Franklin Square and GSO / Blackstone have partnered on three other funds. Franklin Square selected GSO as the sub-adviser for its fourth fund in great part because of GSO’s successful track record in carrying out similar global, event-driven investment strategies for select institutional investors. By focusing on these investment opportunities across GSO / Blackstone’s global platform, FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund looks to create a portfolio that can generate high potential returns.

“We don’t rely on the market to drive the value of a security,” explained Doug Ostrover, Senior Managing Director of Blackstone and co-founder of GSO, who serves as lead portfolio manager for FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund. “We take an independent and proactive approach, leveraging our global reach to identify events that will unlock value for companies and our investors.”

“We see strong investment opportunities in global credit as long as you have the institutional know-how to identify the right deals and the optimal fund structure to take advantage of them,” added Mr. Forman. “With FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund, we are giving investors the ability to diversify into global corporate credit, which has generally outperformed global equities over the past five years and demonstrates low correlation to traditional fixed income investments.”

About Franklin Square
Franklin Square is a leading manager of alternative investment funds designed to enhance investors’ portfolios by providing access to asset classes, strategies and asset managers that typically have been available to only the largest institutional investors. The firm’s funds offer “endowment-style” investment strategies that help construct diversified portfolios and manage risk. Franklin Square strives not only to maximize investment returns but also to set the industry standard for best practices by focusing on transparency, investor protection and education for investment professionals and their clients.

Founded in Philadelphia in 2007, Franklin Square quickly established itself as a leader in the world of alternative investments by introducing innovative credit-based income funds, including the industry’s first non-traded BDC. The firm currently manages three funds with over $9 billion* in assets. Forbes Magazine ranked Franklin Square 13^th on its 2013 list of America’s Most Promising Companies. Franklin Square distributes its funds through its affiliated broker-dealer, FS2 Capital Partners, LLC. For more information, please visit www.franklinsquare.com.

*Assets under management as of September 30, 2013.

About FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund
FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund (the “Fund”) is an unlisted closed-end fund and is the fourth investment fund sponsored by Franklin Square. The Fund focuses on investing primarily in a global portfolio of secured and unsecured floating and fixed rate loans, bonds and other types of credit instruments. Its primary investment objective is to generate an attractive total return consisting of a high level of current income and capital appreciation, with a secondary objective of capital preservation. FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund is managed by FS Global Advisor, LLC, an affiliate of Franklin Square, and is sub-advised by GSO. GSO, with approximately $63.3 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2013, is the credit platform of Blackstone. For more information, please visit www.fsgcofund.com.

Investments in the Fund will be made through two funds, FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund—A and FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund—D (together, the “Companies”), which will invest substantially all of the net proceeds from their public offerings in common shares of beneficial interest of the Fund. The Fund is a separate non-diversified, closed-end management investment company that will carry out the investment strategies generally described above.

About GSO Capital Partners LP
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment and advisory firms. Blackstone seeks to create positive economic impact and long-term value for its investors, the companies it invests in, the companies it advises and the broader global economy. The firm does this through the commitment of its extraordinary people and flexible capital. GSO Capital Partners LP is the global credit platform of Blackstone. GSO, together with its affiliates, has approximately $63 billion of assets currently under management and is one of the largest credit-focused alternative managers in the world and a major participant in the leveraged finance marketplace. GSO seeks to generate superior risk-adjusted returns in its credit business by investing in a broad array of strategies including mezzanine, distressed investing leveraged loans and other special situation strategies. Blackstone’s alternative asset management businesses include investment vehicles focused on private equity, hedge fund solutions, secondary funds, and multi asset class exposures falling outside of other funds’ mandates. Blackstone also provides various financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow us on Twitter @Blackstone.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements, including statements with regard to the future performance of the Fund and the Companies. Words such as “believes,” “expects,” “projects” and “future” or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to the inherent uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions. Certain factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements, and some of these factors are enumerated in the filings the Fund and the Companies make with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Fund and the Companies do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

CONTACT:
Dana Taormina
JCPR
973-850-7305
dtaormina@jcprinc.com

SOURCE:

Franklin Square Capital Partners

Just Over Half of Americans Have More Emergency Savings Than Credit Card Debt

Post author By Dr. Finance
Post date February 25, 2013

Just Over Half of Americans Have More Emergency Savings Than Credit Card Debt

NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2013, Only 55% of Americans have more emergency savings than credit card debt, according to research published today by Bankrate.com (NYSE: RATE). Last year, Bankrate found that 54% of Americans had more emergency savings than credit card debt; the figure was 52% in 2011.

“Consumers may be deleveraging, but the proportion of people with more emergency savings than credit card debt hasn’t changed much,” said Greg McBride , CFA, Bankrate.com’s senior financial analyst. “Given the poll’s 3.5% margin of error, one can make the argument that consumers haven’t moved the needle at all over the past 24 months.”

Bankrate also announced that its Financial Security Index dropped from 98.6 in January to 96.8 in February, surrendering most of the improvement that took place from December to January. A reading of 100 means consumers’ feelings of financial security are unchanged from one year ago; the index has been below 100 – indicative of deteriorating financial security – in 25 of the 27 months since its inception.

Thanks to rebounding home prices and the buoyant stock market, net worth was the only component to improve from January to February. Job security, savings, debt and overall financial situation all declined. When consumers were asked whether they are feeling better, worse or about the same now versus one year ago, net worth was also the only component to register in positive territory. Among the highest-income households (income of $75,000 per year or more), all five components declined over the past month.

The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI) and can be seen in its entirety here:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/consumer-index/financial-security-charts-0213.aspx

PSRAI obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,004 adults living in the continental United States. Interviews were conducted by landline (500) and cell phone (504, including 254 without a landline phone) in English by Princeton Data Source from February 7-10, 2013. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

About Bankrate, Inc.

Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator, and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet. Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes. The Bankrate network includes Bankrate.com, our flagship website, and other owned and operated personal finance websites, including CreditCards.com, Interest.com, Bankaholic.com, Mortgage-calc.com, CreditCardGuide.com, Nationwide Card Services, InsuranceQuotes.com, CarInsuranceQuotes.com, InsureMe, Bankrate.com.cn, CreditCards.ca, NetQuote.com, and CD.com. Bankrate aggregates rate information from over 4,800 institutions on more than 300 financial products. With coverage of nearly 600 local markets in all 50 U.S. states, Bankrate generates over 172,000 distinct rate tables capturing on average over three million pieces of information daily. Bankrate develops and provides web services to over 80 co-branded websites with online partners, including some of the most trusted and frequently visited personal finance sites on the Internet such as Yahoo!, AOL, CNBC, and Bloomberg. In addition, Bankrate licenses editorial content to over 500 newspapers on a daily basis including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.

For more information:

Ted Rossman
Public Relations Manager
Bankrate, Inc.
ted.rossman@bankrate.com
(917) 368-8635

SOURCE:

Bankrate, Inc.
http://www.bankrate.com

Credit Finance Financial News Information Market Real Estate Wealth

Forecasted 2013 American Housing Recovery

Post author By Dr. Finance
Post date January 19, 2013

PCA: All 50 States Expected to Experience Housing Recovery in 2013

2013 Housing Starts Approach the One Million Mark

SKOKIE, Ill., Jan. 18, 2013, Since 2005, tepid economic growth and high foreclosure rates have depressed home prices, bloating inventories and preventing start activity. In 2013, economists are revising nearly a decade of pessimism and forecasting growth throughout the residential construction industry.

A new report from the Portland Cement Association (PCA) projects total housing starts to reach 954,000 units in 2013, reflecting further improvement on 2012’s nearly 30 percent growth.

“The possibility of one million starts in 2013 should not be dismissed,” PCA Chief Economist Ed Sullivan said. “Although the first half 2013 will be mired in a fiscal cliff hangover, we are decidedly optimistic about second half economic growth, job creation and consumer sentiment – all of which translate into a stronger home sales and starts activity.”

Even stronger growth in homebuilding is predicted to materialize in 2014 with starts surpassing 1.1 million.

In another optimistic turn from previous residential forecasts, PCA expects the recovery to be broad-based and is projecting all 50 states will see increases in single family housing this year. Already underway in the interior U.S., the emergence of accelerating construction growth has begun to appear in some of the hardest hit states during the housing bubble burst. These regions are now likely to lead growth in coming years as the long depressed markets begin to return to housing construction rates consistent with their demographics.

“As the recovery unfolds, regions that once lagged recovery now begin to emerge as growth leaders. The Southwest and Southeast, for example, still have the weakest housing fundamentals on a relative basis to the Interior U.S, but on a construction activity basis, given the extremely depressed bases from which these regions are recovering from, they will likely be the housing growth leaders in coming years,” Sullivan said.

PCA expects multifamily construction to continue to grow at a strong pace as favorable fundamentals fuel the sector. Multifamily starts recorded a 55 percent gain in 2011 and 36 percent growth in 2012. PCA expects an additional growth of 15 percent in 2013 to 277,000 units. Damaged credit due to foreclosure activity and tight mortgage lending standards have combined to create robust apartment demand.

About PCA
The Portland Cement Association represents cement companies in the United States and Canada. It conducts market development, engineering, research, education, and public affairs programs. More information on PCA programs is available at www.cement.org.

To obtain a copy of PCA’s analysis of the housing sector, contact Patti Flesher at pflesher@cement.org.

SOURCE: Portland Cement Association

Tags Business, Economics

Credit Debt Loans Mortgages Real Estate

20.6 Million U.S. Homeowners Own Homes Free And Clear Of Mortgage Debt

Post author By Dr. Finance
Post date January 10, 2013
1 Comment on 20.6 Million U.S. Homeowners Own Homes Free And Clear Of Mortgage Debt

20.6 Million U.S. Homeowners Own Homes Free And Clear Of Mortgage Debt

Pittsburgh, Tampa and New York Top Metros For Free-And-Clear Homeownership; Age, Credit Score and Local Home Values Help Influence Ratios Of Debt-Free Homeowners

SEATTLE, Jan. 10, 2013 — Almost 21 million Americans, or 29.3 percent of homeowners, own their homes outright, unencumbered by a mortgage, according to a recent Zillow® analysis of mortgage data.

Analyzing data through the third quarter of 2012, Zillow found that 20.6 million homeowners nationwide own their homes free and clear of mortgage debt.

Among the nation’s 30 largest metro areas included in the study, Pittsburgh (38.6 percent), Tampa (33.2 percent), New York (29.7 percent), Cleveland (29.4 percent) and Miami (28.9 percent) had the highest percentage of free-and-clear homeowners. Washington, D.C. (15.5 percent), Atlanta (17.7 percent), Las Vegas (18.3 percent), Denver (18.5 percent) and Charlotte (20 percent) had the lowest percentage.

A number of elements influence the percentage of free-and-clear homeowners in a given area, including median home values. Zillow found that areas with lower home values generally have higher outright homeownership rates, as smaller loan amounts are easier to pay back more quickly.

Demographic factors including the age and credit rating of primary borrowers also influence free-and-clear homeownership rates. Zillow found that 65- to 74-year-olds are most likely to be free-and-clear (20.5 percent), followed by 74- to 84-year-olds (17.9 percent). This is attributed to the fact that the longer someone owns a home, the longer they have to pay off their mortgage. Interestingly, when examining free-and-clear ownership rates as a percentage of homeowners in various age groups, Zillow found 34.5 percent of 20- to 24-year-old homeowners are free of mortgages.

Among homeowners who own their homes outright, 44 percent have a high VantageScore – representing their credit rating – between 800 and 900. Only 15.5 percent of homeowners with the highest credit rating of 900-990 are free-and-clear.

“So far we have used our unique data on how much homeowners owe on their homes primarily to identify underwater and delinquent groups of homeowners,” said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries . “But looking at those homeowners who are free-and-clear is important, too. Homeowners unencumbered by a mortgage may be more flexible than indebted homeowners, and therefore more apt or willing to list their homes or enter the market for a new property. By determining where these homeowners are located, we can also gain insight into potential inventory and demand in those areas, as well.”

Zillow’s analysis incorporates mortgage data from TransUnion®, a global leader in credit and information management. All personally identifying information is removed from the data by TransUnion before delivery to Zillow. Overall, the data covers more than 800 metro areas, 2,100 counties and 21,900 ZIP codes nationwide. To calculate the free-and-clear homeownership rate, we compute the number of overall homeowners and number of homeowners with no outstanding mortgage debt by location and demographics. We exclude investor and rental homes.

METRO	FREE-&-CLEAR HOMEOWNERSHIP RATE	METRO	FREE-&-CLEAR HOMEOWNERSHIP RATE
New York	29.7%	San Diego	21.5%
Los Angeles	20.7%	Tampa	33.2%
Chicago	23.8%	St. Louis	27.2%
Dallas-Fort Worth	24.5%	Baltimore	22.5%
Philadelphia	27.6%	Denver	18.5%
Washington, DC	15.5%	Pittsburgh	38.6%
Miami-Fort Lauderdale	28.9%	Portland	21.8%
Atlanta	17.7%	Sacramento	21.5%
Boston	24.6%	Orlando	24.6%
San Francisco	21.8%	Cincinnati	23.7%
Detroit	28.8%	Cleveland	29.4%
Riverside, Calif.	20.6%	Las Vegas	18.3%
Phoenix	22.9%	San Jose, Calif.	22.1%
Seattle	21.0%	Columbus, Ohio	21.7%
Minneapolis-St Paul	20.6%	Charlotte, NC	20.0%

For more data on free-and-clear homeownership, including data at the state, metro and county levels broken down by homeowners’ age and credit rating, please see the full research brief or contact press@zillow.com.

About Zillow:
Zillow (NASDAQ: Z) is the leading real estate information marketplace, providing vital information about homes, real estate listings and mortgages through its website and mobile applications, enabling homeowners, buyers, sellers and renters to connect with real estate and mortgage professionals best suited to meet their needs. In addition, Zillow operates an industry-leading economics and analytics bureau led by Zillow’s Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries. Dr. Humphries and his team of economists and data analysts produce extensive housing data and research covering more than 350 markets at Zillow Real Estate Research. Zillow, Inc. operates Zillow.com®, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, Zillow Rentals, Zillow Mobile, Postlets®, Diverse Solutions®, Buyfolio™, Mortech™ and HotPads™. The company is headquartered in Seattle.

Zillow.com, Zillow, Postlets and Diverse Solutions are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc. Buyfolio, Mortech and HotPads are trademarks of Zillow, Inc.

TransUnion is a registered trademark of Trans Union , LLC.

SOURCE Zillow

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