The Ford Motor Co. recently came to market with the third auto-loans deal from its Globaldrive program, but the first to be backed by U.K. receivables.
Called Globaldrive U.K., the GBP250 million ($356.8 million) transaction securitizes around 72,000 loans with an outstanding value roughly equivalent to the bonds issued. Barclays Capital acted as lead manager on the transaction with Chase Manhattan, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Merrill Lynch brought in as co-leads.
FCE Bank, a wholly owned financing subsidiary of Ford, originated all the loans included. The weighted average loan-to-value of the underlying portfolio is 71% and the loans have an average seasoning of 11%.
The transaction was split into two floating-rate tranches. The GBP240 million senior notes - rated AAA by Fitch and Standard & Poor's and Aaa by Moody's Investors Service - carry 3.86 year average lives and priced at 25 basis points over one month Libor. The GBP10 million junior piece came in at 65 over with an average life of 4.92 years, and was rated A2 by Moody's and A by the other two agencies.
Credit enhancement for the senior notes will come from subordination on the junior tranche, a cash reserve and any accrued excess spread.
