Commercial lending

Investment Management Corp. of Ontario is investing $400 million to a customized portfolio, with the goal of capitalizing on Are’s all-weather approach, taking advantage of opportunistic dislocations and market inefficiencies. The remaining $100 million will be allocated to the flagship Ares Pathfinder fund.

Avant Loans Funding Trust 2021-REV1 is a $200 million note offering backed by loans underwritten through its Avant platform. The $500 million OneMain Financial Issuance Trust 2021-1 is the first deal of the year for OneMain, which has previously issued 23 consumer loan securitizations and five auto-loan ABS deals.

Raising the capital gains tax and code changes could have more of an impact on the public debt market than rising interest rates, according to a panelist at the Urban Land Institute's Spring event.

Some worry the Senate’s rejection of the OCC rule hampers efforts to clarify legal standards for banks selling loans to fintechs.

The bonds backed by the primarily non-prime unsecured receivables have preliminary ratings of BBB (low) from DBRS Morningstar and BBB- from Kroll Bond Rating Agency.

More opportunistic borrowers may come as investors continue to pour money into U.S. leveraged loan funds, which have seen the longest positive streak since 19 weeks between February and June 2018.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of April 30-May 6

Goeasy would join the likes of Canadian non-prime lender Fairstone Financial Inc., which sold its inaugural ABS transaction in 2019. Also that year, Home Capital Group Inc. priced the first deal pooling non-prime Canadian home loans since 2007.

Defaults and delinquencies are below pre-pandemic levels for online consumer loans held in securitization pools, but Fitch is concerned normalization may be shortlived as expanded unemployment benefits and other stimulus support programs draw to a close.

The difference between yields on investment-grade debt and junk bonds doesn’t bode well. It’s a sign that leverage in the system is rising.