Asia
Japan - All Nippon Airlines (ANA) has announced plans to securitize 10 of its 28 hotels, starting with a transaction backed by the company's flagship property, ANA Hotel Tokyo. That deal is scheduled for the first half of next year and is expected to raise about 70 billion ($657 million), a company official confirmed.
It will be followed by further deals over the next five years, as ANA struggles to cope with significant losses, both in the hotel business and from the air-line itself.
Korea - Poongsang Construction recently confirmed that it is working with the Korea Real Estate Investment Trust (Koreit) to issue the country's first securitization backed by apartment buildings under construction. It hopes that the domestic transaction will raise around W18 billion ($16 million).
Singapore - In the space of a few days, the Singapore marketsaw the city-state's first securitization of credit and debit cards and the first collateralized debt obligation backed by local assets. The S$65 million card deal was arranged by ABN Amro for Diners Club and is the first issuance out of a S$100 million asset-backed commercial paper program. The notes had a maturity of around 90 days.
Philippines -The Housing and Urban Coordinating Council, the Philippine government body that oversees the country's two state housing agencies, has announced plans to improve the agencies' performance, in a move which could have the side-effect of allowing a resumption of the country's nascent mortgage-backed securities market.
The government body is encouraging the two agencies - the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. and the Home Development Mutual Fund(known as Pag-Ibig) - to outsource their collections and accounting operations to the private sector.
Turkey - Turkish bank, Turkiye Is Bankasi (Is Bank), threw its hat into the securitization ring for the first time recently, in a deal that securitizes future payment orders paid to the bank. Called TIB Remittances Master Trust, the $150 million deal was arranged and lead managed by Salomon Smith Barney. The transaction is backed by future MT 100 payments on such items as exported goods and services.
Europe
Czech Republic - The City of Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, is set to launch the first publicly rated structured deal to come out of the country. The CzK3.75 billion ($99 million) transaction, called Praha Finance, will be used to finance a loan issued by investment bank ING Barings to the city. ING will also act as arranger and underwriter on the transaction. The deal is expected to come to market in early July.
Italy - Italian car giant Fiat is about to launch a securitization of performing autoloans. Called First Italian Auto Transaction, the E1 billion ($960 million) deal will be the biggest autoloan securitization yet to come out of Europe and the first such deal from Italy for ten years. The deal is expected in the market by the end of this month or the beginning of July. Fiat has mandated Dublin-based Euro Capital Structures - a structured finance spin-off established by Fiat and UniCredito Italiano in May last year - to arrange the deal. Merrill Lynch, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and Unicredito have been brought in to underwrite the deal.
Switzerland - Glencore International, the Swiss-based natural resource business involved in the physical trading of commodities, such as metals, minerals, energy and agricultural products, recently brought to market the largest ever trade receivables securitization to be sold in the bond market. Deutsche Bank acted as arranger and bookrunner for the $700 million transaction called Energy & Metals Finance Ltd.
United Kingdom - The U.K.'s largest independent pub company, Punch Group, last week launched the biggest ever securitization ($2.25 billion) - called Punch Funding II - is also a benchmark deal in that it is one of the first pub securitizations to be backed by the income of both managed and leased pubs.
Salomon Smith Barney arranged the deal and acted as bookrunner, along-side Goldman Sachs and the Royal Bank of Scotland. AMBAC Assurance wrapped the senior tranches.
Latin America
Argentina - Two Argentine domestic ABS transactions from the same issuer were close to default last week. The deals in question are worth the equivalent of $11.1 and are backed by auto loans issued by Lujan Williams, a small financing company based in the province of Mendoza.
The company first securitized in 1997, when it launched a deal comprised of two tranches for a total of $5.7 million. In 1998 it issued two more tranches for $5.1 million. The offerings received a triple-A rating from Thomson Bank Watch of Argentina and Evaluadora Latinoamericana, a small local rating agency.
Brazil - Merrill Lynch recently closed a $75.3 million securitization of export receivables for Brazilian refinery OPP Petroquimica S.A. The notes, which were sold to two U.S. bank lenders, have a 3.5-year final maturity and priced at Libor plus 170 basis points.The transaction was marketed as a private placement and was unrated. The deal is backed by a performance bond from Fireman's Fund Insurance and a contingent off-take agreement from Enron Corp.
