(Bloomberg) -- Santander Consumer USA on Wednesday delayed the sale of $942 million of bonds backed by subprime auto loans as the deepening Credit Suisse Group AG crisis added to turmoil in debt markets, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The $942 million sale, led by Citigroup Inc., was part of a $1.3 billion asset backed securities deal, where subprime auto lender Santander Consumer was retaining some of the securities. The underwriters told investors the deal would be postponed "given market volatility" and the issuer would revisit the trade later on, said the people who declined to be identified as the transaction is private.
A Citigroup representative declined to comment, while a spokesperson for Santander Consumer USA wasn't immediately available for comment.
Corporate bond and asset backed sales volumes in the US have been hit by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Risk premiums on unsecured company bonds have jumped in recent days, and issuers have avoided the high-grade corporate bond market this week.
On Monday, car leasing firm Automotive Rentals Inc. paused an almost $900 million auto lease ABS offering and government-backed home loan company Fannie Mae halted a mortgage-linked bond. And investors holding collateralized loan obligations also canceled some scheduled sales of tranches yesterday, waiting to get more clarity on the market, Bloomberg reported.
But some ABS have been sold in recent sessions, including a more than $1 billion offering on Tuesday tied to equipment financing contracts from Dell Technologies Inc.
On Wednesday, Saudi National Bank Chairman Ammar Al Khudairy said he wasn't open to injecting more money into Credit Suisse. The comments from the Swiss firm's biggest shareholder was enough to trigger steep declines in the shares of banks globally. The cost of using derivatives to guarantee bank debt against default jumped.
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