Bank of America Merrill Lynch has launched a £210 million ($358 million) commercial mortgage securitization, Taurus UK 2014-1.
The deal securitizes BofA's loan to private equity firm Apollo EPF II Partnership.
The single floating-rate loan backing the deal is a 95% carve-out of larger whole loan that totals £222.6 million, according to a DBRS presale report. The 5% of the whole loan not being securitized will be retained by Bank of America Merrill Lynch to satisfy risk-retention requirements.
The loan has an initial term of three years with two one-year extensions. It is secured by 132 properties located throughout the U.K., primarily in England and Wales with a few properties located in Scotland. The properties were acquired as foreclosures. The primary reason for the foreclosures was too much leverage on the underlying assets. However, leverage has since been right-sized with the acquisition, according to the presale report.
The securitization trust will offer £133.32 million of A’ rated class A notes; £48.7 million of BBB’ rated class B notes; and £29.4 million of BB’ rated class C notes. The notes are due May 2022.
