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Kroll Ups Two Tranches in New Auto Deal

Kroll Bond Rating Agency today raised its preliminary rating on two tranches in a recently issued subprime auto loan transaction by First Investors.

Priced on Nov. 6, First Investors Auto Owner Trust 2013-3 ended up with higher excess spread thanks to tighter coupons. This prompted Kroll to raise the score that it expects to give the B tranche to ‘AA+’ from ‘AA’ initially and the D tranche to ‘BBB+’ from ‘BBB.’

The release didn’t say what the previous ratings were for those two classes. A call to a press official was not returned at press time.

The deal totals $250 million, which was an upsize from $206.4 million originally. The B tranche is $11.5 million and the D tranche $12 million.

Higher on the capital stack are two triple-A rated pieces: a $96 million A-2 series and a $74.35 million A-3 tranche.

The deal is First Investors’ third asset-backed of 2013 and 12th securitization ever. The collateral consists of subprime auto loans with an average loan balance of $20,276 and a weighted average FICO of 584. Over ¾ of the loans are for used vehicles.  

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