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ABS

Weekly Wrap: Castlelake revives aircraft ABS sector

By providing a host of new investor protections, Castlelake Aviation is hoping its new aircraft-lease securitization will provide a boost to an ABS sector hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, Castlelake priced $595 million in notes issued via its Castlelake Aircraft Structured Trust 2021-1 vehicle, the first securitization of airline passenger-jet aircraft since February 2020 and Castlelake's first deal since April 2019.

(The only other activity in the asset class involved a corporate-jet aircraft deal sponsored by Global Jet Capital that last priced last October).

The sale of two bond tranches in Castlelake's 2021 deal (which priced Thursday) will finance a portfolio of 26 commercial aircraft including narrowbody, widebody, regional jet and freight models. The planes have an initial value of $794 million.

The market has been void of such deals since the arrival of the global coronavirus outbreak on U.S. shores, crushing demand for business and leisure travel that cut off revenue to many airlines suddently unable to meet payment obligations on their leased fleets. As global travel suffered a year-over-year 44% decline through December 2020, dozens of aircraft ABS note tranches were downgraded by ratings agencies and many international airlines' own debt ratings fell into the ditchas they ramped requests for rent deferrments with leasing firms.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency noted in a report that payment deferrals across rated aircraft ABS portfolios range from 7% to 68% during the summer, and deliquencies were 24% to 77%.

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In a Jan. 13 credit markets report, however, Deutsche Bank noted that cash collections have improved slightly across 40 aircraft ABS transactions it follows, as improved rent and end-of-lease payment activity produced "materially" better debt-service coverage ratios: the average DSCR rate was 0.86x in December compared to 0.72x in November.

Carlyle this week found that with a bevy of new deal structural changes (along with a 4.15% weighted average yield), there was still investor appetite for the asset class, albeit with a bevy of new structural changes. Notes were enhanced to allocate advance rates and amortization on an asset-by-asset basis, and investor covenants were expanded. There was also a lower starting leverage, a faster amortization schedule and increased cash sweep provisions.

“We were very pleased by the robust investor interest in this transaction," said Evan Carruthers, the managing partner and co-founder of Castlelake, in a statement. Goldman Sachs was the lead structuring agent and left lead bookrunner.

The deal's strengths included long leases on a "vast majority" of the plans beyond 2024, according to Moody's Investors Service. (With the Castlelake deal, Moody's is rating its first aircraft ABS deal in nearly a decade).

The transaction includes a senior-note single-A rating by Kroll and Moody's. Moody's applied an A2 rating to the Class A notes and a Baa2 to the Class B tranche; Kroll assigned a BBB to the Class B offering.

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HY Issuers shift maturity wall in near-record refi boom in 2020

The amount of leveraged debt maturing over the next five years has fallen by $325 billion, as issuers went on a $416 billion refinancing spree last year to extend loans and high-yield bonds with low interest rates.

According to a leveraged finance report this week from JPMorgan Chase, maturities have expanded by $353 billion past 2027, leaving just $189 billion of HY debt maturing through the end of 2022 - or only 6.4% of the outstanding loans and bonds.

Over the next three years, maturities will make up just 14.5% of total outstanding speculative-grade corporate debt, which along with 2022 maturies "comfortably below" the peak of 21.3% ahead of the last refinancing wave in 2010, according to JPMorgan.

Chopra
Bloomberg News

Chopra could prioritize CFPP enforcement, COVID relief

Rohit Chopra, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is expected to hit the ground running at the CFPB by quickly undoing Trump administration policies and moving aggressively to protect consumers during the pandemic.

Chopra is seen as a strong consumer advocate who will push for fairness and financial inclusion for minorities, one of the Biden administration’s priorities.

"Rohit is a dynamic leader who knows the agency, understands the issues and will be ready to set a new course on day one," said Michael Gordon, a partner at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings.

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Kate Berry
used car
Used Car Drive In neon sign from the 50s at a pre owned car dealership I
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Drivetime, American Acceptance price subprime auto deals

DriveTime Car Sales and American Credit Acceptance Corp. each closed on their first 2021 subprime auto ABS deals, garnering a 0.35% coupon on their respective triple-A rated notes.

DriveTime priced its deal via Wells Fargo, is the 33rd non-bond-insured securitization since 2010. DriveTime Auto Owner Trust 2021-1 pools 23,630 loans with an average balance of $16,928 and average APR of 22.65%.

DriveTime's most recent deal was from August 2020, at a time when several of its existing asset-backed deals were under credit watch scrutiny due to concerns its primarily deep-subprime borrower base, who in most recent pools have had an average FICO under 550.

But according to S&P Global, several notes from 13 transactions were either affirmed or raised as collections remained strong "due in part at least to unemployment benefits and the government stimulus payments."

DriveTime's deal was rated by S&P and DBRS Morningstar.

American Credit Acceptance Receivables Trust 2021-1 is a $411 million transaction that closed on Tuesday, as well, via Deutsche Bank. The transaction included not only a three-month prefunding account amounting to 22% of the total proposed colalteral pool, but also consisted of called collateral left over from a paid-down 2017 series of ABS notes.

The pool of 13,188 loans on late-model used cars with average mileage of 52,155. The accounts have an average balance of $15,861 and an average APR of 24.55%. The loans are seasoned an average of 4.56 months of 70.77 average original month terms. The average loan-to-value ratio of 117.67% is below that of most of its 2019-2020 transactions.

S&P states it has an expected net cumulative loss range of 30.5%-31.5%, lower than that of the most recent ACAR deal (2020-4) with a projected loss range of 31.5%-32.5%.






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CMBS issuance to rebound to $70B after 45% drop in 2020

S&P Global Ratings estimates that commercial mortgage-backed securities volume will increase significantly over 2020 levels, as CMBS delinquency levels have declined from peak levels and COVID-19 vaccination rollouts spur hopes of more normalized economic activity.

However, certain pockets of distress will remain in place.

S&P projects volume of $70 billion in 2021, compared to the 2020 final deal tally of $53 billion that was a 45% year-over-year decline from 2019.

The projection came in a report issued Tuesday by the ratings agency that provided details on fourth-quarter CMBS activity involving eight new-issue transactions.

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Glen Fest
Domino pieces standing in a row. 3D illustration
Domino pieces standing in a row. 3D illustration.
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New issue pipeline

Twelve new asset-backed transactions entered the ABS/MBS pipeline this week, according to ABS-15G filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Citigroup filed for two commercial-mortgage-backed securitizations, along with new CMBS deals sponsored by Wells Fargo and Loancore Capital.

Credit Suisse and Lakeview Loan Servicing were among the three sponsors of new residential MBS transactions. NewDay Funding also filed notice of its next credit-card ABS transaction, and Upstart Holdings is planning a new portfolio of marketplace consumer loans.

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