|
|
|
| |
| Additional information |
| |
| Amherst Holdings, LLC |
| |
| |
Overview:
Amherst Holdings, LLC is a holding company for financial firms focused on serving institutional investors in the markets for mortgage-backed securities and other structured finance products. Amherst Holdings emphasizes a unique, analytical approach to these markets, focusing on the credit and performance characteristics of mortgage assets.
Our dedication to developing proprietary analytical tools and methodologies has fostered an invaluable perspective of how mortgage assets will perform over time through a unique approach to analyzing loan-level data.
In the past few years, while other companies were actively pursuing investment strategies that are producing enormous losses, Amherst Holdings was dedicated to a conservative, analytical view of all aspects of the mortgage markets. Today, using proprietary technologies, Amherst Holdings and its subsidiaries identify exceptional investment opportunities for our clients, including buying and selling mortgage-backed securities, other structured finance products and related derivatives. We are effectively arming our clients with actionable intelligence for pursuing outstanding investment opportunities in this tumultuous residential and commercial mortgage market.
Amherst Holdings serves institutional clients through two principal subsidiaries, Amherst Securities Group, LP, an SEC registered broker dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC, and Amherst Advisory & Management, LLC (AAM), a registered investment advisor. Amherst Funding Group, LP (AFG) is structured as a mortgage conduit and is authorized to own and service mortgage loans nationwide. AFG is an approved FNMA seller / servicer. Amherst Derivatives Trading, LLC serves as an intermediary and consultant in the markets for mortgage-related interest rate and credit derivatives. The company is primarily owned by Amherst principals and employees and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.
|
|
 |
|
History:
Founded in 1993, Amherst Securities Group, LP (Amherst Securities) was launched as a fixed-income broker-dealer, specifically focused on residential mortgage assets. Over the years, Amherst has significantly expanded its professional, capital and analytic resources and today offers a wide array of brokerage, banking and advisory services covering both the residential, commercial mortgage and structured finance markets for global institutional investors.
Based on our advice and performance during the recent financial crisis, we have also become a valued advisor for a number of federal agencies and policy makers involved in the efforts to construct a more stable set of housing policies and programs.
From 2003 to 2005, Amherst invested heavily in the rapidly expanding non-agency Residential Mortgage Backed Securities sector, building loan level analytics and compiling an enormous amount of loan and performance data. Amherst had also built a nationwide conduit and was poised to expand the business further. However, in late 2005, the diligence and research examining the characteristics of loans available for securitization uncovered a number of troubling findings. Based on an extensive loan level review of historical mortgage origination activity, we observed that many of the mortgages originated from late 2004 forward included increasingly aggressive structural and underwriting features.
Despite having made a significant investment to develop a strong franchise in the subprime, Alt A and Option ARM markets, we decided not to complete any private label residential mortgage securitizations and to develop strategies that would protect our clients from the events that were unfolding.
As the magnitude of the financial crisis became increasingly apparent, Amherst’s reputation and business opportunities expanded. Early in 2008, we made the strategic decision to expand the broker dealer and build a Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities sales and trading business. In July 2008, we raised $225mm of growth capital in a transaction led by Stone Point Capital. Given the chaos in the market, this was a significant accomplishment and a strong endorsement of Amherst and its management by a supportive group of sophisticated investors. We also established an asset management and investment advisory business, Amherst Advisory & Management LLC (AAM). AAM closed its first fund in October 2010, a drawdown structure with more than $400 million in commitments. AAM also provides advice to a growing number of global RMBS investors. It is setting the industry standard for transparency, forensic loan reviews and associated loss recapture and avoidance strategies, in addition to detailed security management and reporting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
