SunTrust Bank is marketing its inaugural prime auto loan securitization. The $1 billion transaction, called SunTrust Auto Receivables Trust 2015-1 (STAT 2015-1), is backed by fixed-rate auto loan receivables.
Credit Suisse is the lead manager on the deal.
Standard & Poor’s assigned its A-1+’ preliminary rating to the $185 million of class A-1 money market notes due in June 2016. The $315 million of class A-2 notes due in June 2018, $241 million of class A-3 notes due in September 2019, and $203.69 million of class A-4 notes due in January 2021 are all rated AAA’ by S&P.
The deal also offers three subordinate tranches: $14.08 million of class B notes due February 2021, $20.11 million of class C notes due April 2021, and $26.65 million class D notes due January 2023. The junior tranches are rated AA+,’ A+,’ and BBB,’ respectively.
A pool of 39,967 auto loan contracts serves as collateral behind the transaction. Texas, Florida, and Georgia are the three states with the highest loan concentrations at 19.4%, 19.2%, and 10.2%, respectively. The average principal loan balance is $25,159, with repayment set between 61-84 months.
Borrowers in the pool have a high weighted average FICO score of 745, weighted average loan to value ratio of 100%, and the weighted average seasoning of the loans is four months. New car loans make up approximately 46% of the pool, while the remaining 52% accounts for used car loans.
S&P cites the availability of approximately 8%, 6.7%, 4.7% and 2.5% credit support for the class A, B, C, and D notes as a key strength of the deal. The ratings agency expects the class A and B to notes to remain within one rating category of its current position throughout the first year, and the class C and D notes to remain within two rating categories, providing a moderate stress scenario.
The deal is expected to close June 25.
