Peru - Following its cross-border credit card deals of 1995 and early 1999, Banco de Credito del Peru (BCP) is getting ready to test the asset-backed waters again, this time with a securitization of electronic remittances.
"As the biggest Peruvian bank, BCP wants to test the acceptance of new assets in the market," said a source working on the transaction. "They have a very good name from their previous transactions and wanted to try and tap other sources of financing."
Spain - Spain recently saw its first public term CLO deal, when its second largest bank, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), launched a E1.15 billion ($1.11 billion) issue backed by corporate loans.
The deal, called BBVA-1, priced at wider spreads than anticipated, highlighting the new willingness of Spanish originators to offer premiums to entice foreign investors and internationalize the placement of Spanish issues.
United Kingdom - The U.K. CMBS market took another leap forward at the end of February as Deutsche Bank closed a transaction backed by the revenues from a Manchester shopping complex called the Trafford Centre on behalf of Peel Holding PLC.
The deal, called Trafford Centre Finance Ltd., and jointly underwritten by Deutsche and Royal Bank of Scotland, was first in the market in October last year, but was withdrawn after it proved impossible to place all the bonds at a price that Peel was happy to pay.
United Kingdom - Paragon Group, a U.K. provider of mortgages, personal finance and car loans, recently launched a E185 million ($293 million) deal backed by buy-to-buy mortgages. The transaction, called Paragon Mortgages (No 2) even though it was the lenders third MBS, was split into two tranches: a E165.5 million senior tranche rated Aaa/AAA by Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's and an A2/A tranche worth E15.5 million.
ING Barings acted as lead manager for the deal with J.P. Morgan and Royal Bank of Scotland as co-managers.
Korea - The Korea Asset Management Corp. (Kamco) has mandated arrangers for its next domestic non-performing loan backed securitization. The agency in charge of cleaning up bad loans from the domestic financial sector has hired LG Securities Co. and Tong Yang Securities Co. for the issue, its second non-performing loan backed deal this year.
Australia - Australian Mortgage Securities, a mortgage finance business owned by ABN Amro, priced its biggest euro mortgage-backed transaction to date.
The US$750 million deal featured US$300 million of Class A-1 senior notes with an average life of one year and five months, and US$425.5 million of Class A-2 notes with an average life of four years and eight months. The tranches were priced at 20 and 30 basis points respectively over Libor.
Argentina - Working with Bear Stearns seems to have done the trick for Argentina's Banco Hipotecario Nacional's long awaited fourth transaction BHN IV, as the bank priced $156 million in mortgage-backed securities last week. The notes featured a political risk insurance policy from Zurich U.S. Political Risk and were rated A1 by Moody's Investors Service and A+ by Fitch IBCA.
United Kingdom - Morgan Stanley Dean Witter recently structured a deal for supermarket group J. Sainsbury. This structure allows the originator much more flexibility than a traditional sale-and-lease back deal with a property company. It is supposedly the first time a sale-and-lease back structure was combined with a securitized bond issue.
Greece - The pipeline is loaded in Greece. Topping the list is IKA, the state social security agency, which recently announced that a consortium with Paribas, Citibank and the National Bank of Greece will advise on a deal backed by overdue social security payments.
Switzerland - For or against Bank of International Settlements' (BIS) proposals for reforming the Basle capital adequacy standards? Association of German Mortgage Banks is against one of the proposed amendments. The association is asking the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision to maintain the preferential 10% risk weighting for investors who hold pfandbriefe, rather than change it to the 20% rating that top-rate asset-backed securitizations will attract if proposals are implemented as they stand.
Japan - Several Tokyo-based firms have begun the preliminary work on Japanese commercial real estate conduits., and four are reportedly expected to close in a year. Nikko Salomon Smith Barney, J.P Morgan and General Motors Acceptance Corp., which acquired the real estate operations of the defunct Japan Leasing Corp. last year, are some of the companies that are working on conduits.
Australia - Standard & Poor Ratings Services has predicted a strong showing for the Australian structured finance market, after rating 56 deals last year worth A$33 billion (US$20 billion). In 1998, S&P rated 55 transactions worth A$22 billion.
