After Ford Motor Credit Co.'s (FMCC) ABS sale had been reportedly pulled last Wednesday, along with a planned sale from another unamed issuer, the firm is pushing through with its auto ABS offering called Ford Credit Auto Owner Trust 2010-B.
The sale was derailed after Standard & Poors, Moody's Investors Service, Fitch Ratings and DBRS withdrew their ratings from publicaton in securitization deals' public offering documents because of the repeal of Section 436(G) of the Securities Act of 1933. This repeal opened the rating agencies to potential liability under Section 11 of the said act.
However, the Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday issued a no-action letter granting a six-month reprieve wherein ratings will not be required in the public ABS offering documents.
With SEC granting a transition period, Ford will still be issuing its $1.08 billion auto-backed deal with Bank of America Merill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole Securities and Deutsche Bank Securities serving as lead managers.
Co-managers on the previously postponed transaction are Goldman Sachs, HSBC Securities, Scotia Capital, and Wells Fargo Securities.
Published reports said that, based on the circumstances surrounding the transaction, pricing on the auto ABS is expected to be tight.
Preliminary details on the transaction are available via the link below from the ASR Scorecards database.
According to a presale report by Fitch, this deal is the second public retail offering issued by FMCC in 2010. The rating agency recently rated 2010-A and 2009-C while it did not rate 2009-D or 2009-E.
Fitch said that Ford's transaction is backed by a pool of new and used automobile, light-truck and utility vehicle loans bought by FMCC from dealers and serviced by FMCC. The notes in this deal are all fixed-rate.
The class A-1 notes are money market eligible, according to Fitch. The class A-2 through class D notes will be publicly offered.
