Courtesy of Asset Sales Report International.
Europe
Switzerland - UBS Warburg recently brought to market the first synthetic collateralized loan obligation to come out of Switzerland. Called HAT - or Helvetic Asset Trust - the SFr350 million ($212 million) transaction securitizes part of the credit risk attached to a portfolio of loans originated by UBS to small- and medium-sized businesses in Switzerland.
France - Chantiers de L'Antique, wholly-owned shipping subsidiary of French infrastructure supplier Alstom, last week brought to market its securitization of future payments for the delivery of cruise ships. Merrill Lynch acted as arranger and bookrunner for the $580 million transaction, called Cruise Ship Finance.
Latin America
Argentina - Almost a year after it launched its political insurance product for the capital markets, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. made its Latin American ABS debut. Two Argentinean issuers, Edenor S.A. and Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN), were the first to make use of OPIC's transfer and convertibility insurance (TOC).
Argentina - Lehman Brothers is said to be working on a securitization of oil and gas royalties for the Argentine province of Salta. The deal, which is rumored to be for over $100 million, will be the province's first international transaction and its first royalties securitization.
Brazil - Brazil's limited investment universe just got smaller. A few weeks ago the country's central bank issued Resolution 2720, which ostensibly promotes greater transparency in the market by forbidding pension funds from buying fixed-income paper issued by privately held companies.
Any company that is not registered with the Brazilian securities exchange commission, Comissao de Valores Mobiliarios, is considered private. As such, the maximum maturity for their paper is 180 days. Resolution 2720 requires that pension funds invest in notes with maturities longer than 180 days, which effectively bans them from purchasing private companies' notes.
Asia
India - The first mortgage-backed security in India looks to be nearing completion and is set for launch towards the end of July, market pros in India said. The transaction is backed by assets originated by the Housing Development Finance Corp. and comes via India's governing body for housing finance, the National Housing Bank, which is leading efforts to foster mortgage-backed securities and a secondary mortgage market.
Japan - Honda Finance, the financing arm of Honda Motor Co., came to the public securitization market for the first time in mid-June with a 32.6 billion ($311 million) autoloan transaction, which lead manager Merrill Lynch said will set a new benchmark in the Japanese asset-backed market.
Africa
South Africa - South African mortgage company S.A. Home Loans last week announced details of its debut entry into the MBS market. The company, which is affiliated with the International Finance Corp. and was set up in 1999 to provide low cost mortgage financing and refinancing, will launch a six-tranche deal in early July.
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