A fairly busy spate of new issuance was seen last week, as returnees from the Independence Day holiday had $6.723 billion of supply to choose from in a diverse array of asset classes, following the disjointed week previous that saw just one $282 million deal sold. The primary market looks to have resumed its first-half form, with new issuance well received, leading to upsizings and the tightening of offered spreads.
Two non-prime auto loan-backed deals in the market last week each saw strong demand, both being increased in size and tightening upon launch. While the success of a wrapped offering from sector benchmark issuer AmeriCredit Corp. is not surprising, the success of the first-ever public auto-loan securitization from Capital One Financial caught some off-guard.
Independent subprime lender AmeriCredit priced $1.85 billion of auto loan-backed paper, at levels tight to initial guidance across the board. Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown was lead manager for the offering, backed by an FSA surety wrap, which was increased from an initial $1.2 billion in size.
Capital One, a frequent issuer in the credit card sector, tapped the auto-loan sector with its first public auto-loan securitization via the lead of Banc of America Securities. The series 2001-A offering also was increased to $910 million from the initial $750 million, tightening prior to pricing to levels in line with the AmeriCredit deal - a fact that sources close to the deal were quick to point out. The the deal was backed by a full MBIA wrap.
Driving the success of the issue, sources added, was Capital One's strong name recognition in securitization markets, stemming from a good reputation as a servicer. In addition to the increase in size and tightening prior to pricing, the offering priced one day ahead of schedule.
"Since Capital One's acquisition of Summit Acceptance Corp. in July of 1998 there have been only four, non-public deals, so this was the next step in the company's commitment to the auto-finance sector," said a source familiar with the deal. Capital plans to be programmatic with future issuance in the sector, with two to four new issues per year, it was added.
In the mortgage sector, Long Beach Mortgage, the subprime lending unit of Washington Mutual Inc., priced $1.56 billion of mortgage-backed paper via the lead of Banc of America. The series 2001-LB2 deal, backed by loans with a 570 average FICO, featured two FSPC T-34 Freddie Mac conforming classes totaling $922 million.
In the credit card sector, de-linked supply was all that was available, with offerings from the MBNAseries program and the pre-enhanced A and B classes from retailer Saks Inc.
MBNA priced $500 million of 10-year floating-rate senior paper, via Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, at par with a coupon of one-month Libor plus 25 basis points and $400 million of five-year BBB-rated C2 fixed-rate paper via Lehman Brothers to yield 101 basis points over comparable mid-market swaps.
Saks Inc., formerly Proffitts Inc., followed up on the $65.5 million of BBB-rated paper priced the week of June 25 with $369 million of five-year floating-rate notes via Banc of America, which also led the prior offering. The $333 million senior class was viewed as a success, pricing up to four basis points tight to comparable private-label credit card issuers, illustrating investor willingness to buy off-the-run names, trading liquidity for yield, according to Luis Araneda at Banc of America.
