Commercial lending

Don Mullen, founder and chief executive officer of Pretium Partners, says that corporate debt could underperform mortgages this year, with fewer defaults likely for real estate loans and higher recoveries for mortgage-backed instruments.

U.S. companies including Hilton and Avis are so anxious to lock in low borrowing costs now, before inflation fears push yields even higher or close the market altogether, that they’re paying millions of dollars in penalties to refinance debt early.

A PIMCO-sponsored HELOC securitzation, as well as a mortgage-insurance linked transaction, are the latest examples of issuers getting a head start on switching to an expected replacement benchmark for Libor.

The $1.18 billion deal is also the first to include Tesla’s mid-range Model Y vehicle (with an MSRP of $54, 119) that makes up 36% of the securitized value of the TALT 2021-A pool, according to a presale report from Moody’s Investors Service.

UMB Financial’s success in aviation financing has boosted fee income, and the Missouri company has opened an office in Dublin — a hub for airplane sales and leases that could get busier as the airline industry restructures.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of March 12-18

The strong showing has prompted managers to bring new deals at favorable terms and refinance and reset existing bonds at cheaper costs, leading market observers to predict a record year for refinancings.

CLO new-issue month-to-date volume is at $8.9 billion, keeping pace with a record $15.8 billion total from February

Firms targeted include Brigade Capital Management, HPS Investment Partners, Symphony Asset Management and Bardin Hill Investment Partners, which all have a CLO business that repackages leveraged loans into bonds of differing risks, sources said.

Worried initially that marketplace lenders might falter at the first stage of a crisis, the sector has weathered the COVID-19 storm and now projects to match 2019's record securitization deal volume.