© 2024 Arizent. All rights reserved.

S&P offers note of confidence following summer hurricanes

Standard & Poor's issued a report last week on the minimal impact that recent hurricanes have had on future flow transactions in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. In the region, the agency rates deals backed by credit cards and diversified payment rights (DPRs), which refers to electronic money flows handled by banks.

Jamaica was the only country with rated deals to suffer damage from the string of hurricanes that bore down on the Gulf region over the last few months. Despite that, a $200 million credit card-backed deal originated by National Commercial Bank Jamaica came out only a little scratched. "Receivable levels have only dipped slightly in September from historical levels," said Gary Kochubka, a director of structured finance at S&P.

Apparently, the tourist flow bounced back rather quickly following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ivan. The damage is estimated at $23 billion, according to S&P.

Initially $125 million, the NCB deal was recently upsized. Sole lead Citigroup Global Markets also termed it out to Oct. 7, 2009 from July 2006. The deal has a full wrap from XL.

Elsewhere in the region, the rising popularity of receivables investment funds (FIDCs) in Brazil appears to be unstoppable. The tremendous growth of the hottest securitization vehicle in the domestic market is being fueled by a funding appetite from companies that otherwise would be shunned by the market and by institutional investors' increasing comfort with ABS overall, according to a recent report by Moody's Investors Service.

"Growth should come from incipient credit card receivables, future flow and special-situation' asset classes, such as non-performing loans, as many small, medium, and large-sized corporations increasingly turn to FIDCs to securitize their receivables and raise capital," said analyst Roberto Watanabe, one of the report's authors.

Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.thomsonmedia.com http://www.asreport.com

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM ASSET SECURITIZATION REPORT