Rising above it?

Merrill Lynch's announcement on July 28 that it would sell the majority of its super-senior collateralised debt obligation of asset-backed securities (CDO of ABS) portfolio to a private equity fund caught the credit markets completely unawares. The surprise turned to astonishment once the terms of the deal were revealed. An illiquid CDO portfolio with a notional value of $30.6 billion, valued at $11.1 billion at the end of the second quarter, was sold for just $6.7 billion - implying an average