Budget-Rent-A-Car's most recent deal, which was scheduled to price on Friday, will have likely carried rare split ratings, with Moody's Investors Service setting the B class notes at Aaa' and the C class notes at A3', compared to the double-A/single-A ratings from Standard & Poor's and Fitch.
Deutsche Bank is lead manager on the $400 million transaction, which is being issued through the Team Fleet Financing trust.
At press time last week, Moody's indicated that it would not put final ratings on the deal until Friday afternoon. It was said that Moody's asked for more credit enhancement on the deal, although the rating agency declined to comment on the specifics of the transaction.
The split ratings have occurred on the previous 1999 and 1998 Budget deals as well, because of differences in ratings methodology.
The deal is talked at one-month Libor plus 50 area on the 2.4-year A class, plus 100 area on the 2.6-year B class, and plus 200 area on the 2.6-year C class.
According to an investor looking at the deal, the deal sounds almost to good to be true.
"The +50A/L for a triple-A is very attractive and we haven't found any problems with the deal," the source added. The transaction does have a great deal of exposure to Ford, as 70% of the cars are understood to be from Ford, and there is a repurchase agreement dependent on the auto-maker.
