by Calculated Risk on 7/28/2008 05:47:00 PM

From Merrill Lynch: Merrill Lynch Announces Substantial Sale of U.S. ABS CDOs, Exposure Reduction of $11.1 Billion

First, here are the write-downs:

As a result of the transactions announced today, the company expects to record a pre-tax write-down in the third quarter of 2008 of approximately $5.7 billion. This write-down is comprised of a $4.4 billion loss associated with the sale of CDOs, a $0.5 billion net loss on the termination of hedges with XL Capital Assurance and an approximately $0.8 billion maximum loss related to the potential settlement of other CDO hedges with certain monoline counterparties.

Here is the info on the CDO sale:

On July 28, 2008, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell $30.6 billion gross notional amount of U.S. super senior ABS CDOs to an affiliate of Lone Star Funds for a purchase price of $6.7 billion. At the end of the second quarter of 2008, these CDOs were carried at $11.1 billion, and in connection with this sale Merrill Lynch will record a write-down of $4.4 billion pre-tax in the third quarter of 2008.

On a pro forma basis, this sale will reduce Merrill Lynch’s aggregate U.S. super senior ABS CDO long exposures from $19.9 billion at June 27, 2008, to $8.8 billion, the majority of which comprises older vintage collateral – 2005 and earlier. The pro forma $8.8 billion super senior long exposure is hedged with an aggregate of $7.2 billion of short exposure, of which $6.0 billion are with highly-rated non-monoline counterparties, of which virtually all have strong collateral servicing agreements, and $1.1 billion are with MBIA. The remaining net exposure will be $1.6 billion. The sale will reduce Merrill Lynch’s risk-weighted assets by approximately $29 billion.

Merrill Lynch will provide financing to the purchaser for approximately 75% of the purchase price. The recourse on this loan will be limited to the assets of the purchaser. The purchaser will not own any assets other than those sold pursuant to this transaction.

There is much more in the press release.