New Zealand's fledgling securitization market got off to a flying start in the past year thanks to several residential mortgage-backed deals, but securitization of two oft-mentioned asset classes - trees and student loans - will not be happening anytime soon.
Fletcher Challenge Forests, one of the world's biggest forestry concerns, has been studying a deal backed by the rights to the future income flow from harvested trees. "A future flow deal has been a possibility for quite some time. But it is only one of many options at this point," confirmed a firm official in Auckland.
Student loans, another asset class ripe for securitization in New Zealand, will definitely not be forthcoming, however. The government has decided that such a program would be too expensive, following a review of the student loan scheme undertaken last year, a government official announced recently.
