U.S. ABS activity picked up last week, as $4.45 billion of supply priced as of press time with an additional $6.67 billion slated for completion Friday. Including the $1.6 billion of non-conforming MBS to hit, the primary market saw $12.7 billion last week ($11.1 billion excluding non-conforming MBS).
The week kicked off with Capital One Financial's first credit card ABS of the year, a triple-B rated fixed-rate note through joint leads Citigroup Global Markets and Wachovia Securities. Cap One COMET 2004-C1 priced at 89 basis points over swaps, at the tight end of guidance in the 90 basis points area, to yield 3.432%, following an increase in size to $200 million from the initial $150 million.
The last time Cap One sold three-year, triple-B rated fixed-rate credit card ABS was May 28, 2003, pricing its 2002-C2 deal at 265 basis points over swaps.
Late in the week, Citibank introduced its first credit card offering of the year, a $1 billion triple-A fixed-rate deal, talked in the two-to-three basis point area over swaps. Pricing was expected Friday via Citigroup, as was an upsizing.
Student Loan ABS kicked off 2004 with a bank, as a pair of billion-dollar deals hit.
Nelnet Education Loan Funding completed its $1 billion 2004-1 transaction via Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank Securities, after the structure was tweaked to satisfy demand. Nelnet's 1.6-year A1A class priced at seven basis points over three-month Libor, while its 1.6-year fixed-rate A1B class priced at eight basis points over EDSF, to yield 1.843%. The 2.8-year A2A class priced at 11 basis points over three-month Libor while the 4.8-year A2B notes priced at 11 basis points over Libor. When first introduced, the offering consisted of two $489 million A1 and A2 senior classes, with 1.6 and 2.8-year average lives.
Arizona Educational Loan Marketing Corp. also had $1 billion of student loan supply in the market through sole lead manager UBS, although the transaction had yet to price. The series 2004-A deal consisted of $530 million of term floaters with the remaining $470 million in the form of auction rate notes.
GMAC-RFC shows no signs of slowing, as it priced two mortgage-related ABS last week for a total of $2.35 billion.
Deutsche Bank Securities and JPMorgan Securities jointly led the RASC 2004-KS1 offering early in the week, while Bear Stearns led the $1.4 billion RAMP 2004-RS1 deal that priced Thursday.
As expected, the subprime RASC KS deal priced at the tight end of guidance for its triple-A classes and through guidance by up to five basis points for its subordinates. Two-year fixed-rate seniors priced at 40 basis points over swaps with the 5.7-year triple-B plus subs pricing at 195 basis points over swaps. Two-year triple-A floaters cleared at 27 basis points over one-month Libor and the triple-B plus sub floaters priced at 175 over Libor.
RAMP RS1 came wider to RASC, but still through indicative levels. Two-year fixed-rate seniors priced at 68 basis points over swaps. Floating-rate A2B notes, with a 2.6-year average life, cleared at 30 basis points over one-month Libor, while the triple-B floaters priced at 215 basis points over Libor.
Also, RBS Greenwich Capital and Wachovia jointly led a $900 million Equity One home equity ABS that topped expectations for subordinate notes. Two-year triple-As priced at 46 basis points over swaps, but the triple-B minus floaters priced with just a 225 basis point coupon over one-month Libor.
Still in the market as of Thursday's close were the $1.97 billion offering from Long Beach Mortgage, the first HEL from Long Beach since last July, via RBS Greenwich. LBMLT 2004-1 also has roughly $2 billion of triple-As pre-sold, bringing the total size to over $4 billion.
CSFB principal finance shelf HEMT was set to price $298 million of acquired collateral, while Aegis Mortgage was making the rounds with $414 million via Bear. Additionally, there was roughly $13.7 billion of U.K. RMBS set for this week from vehicles of HBOs plc and Northern Rock plc.
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