News
Standard & Poor's does not expect to put any of the 90 or so transactions American International Group has wrapped on formal review for rating action, according to sources at S&P.
Several weeks ago the rating agency said it was examining at least 70-80 AIG insured ABS transactions as a result of its 100% owned subsidiary, Lexington Insurance Co., stalling on paying a claim on an insured UK film future flow deal via Credit Suisse First Boston.
Meanwhile, last week S&P lowered its ratings on two classes of Heilig-Meyers Master Trust's asset-backed certificates series 1998-2. The rating on class A was lowered to BB-' from AAA' and the rating on class B was lowered to CCC' from A'. Both classes remain on watch.
The rating actions reflect the deterioration in collateral performance since Heilig-Meyers Co. filed for bankruptcy in August 2000 (see story last week).
Mexico's Grupo Elektra, an appliance store, has closed its seventh issuance of certificates backed by a revolving pool of accounts. The deal totaled $46.7 million and was rated AAA (MEX) by Fitch.
National Century Financial Enterprises (NCFE) has a $300 million health receivables-backed ABS on track to issue by the end of March, ABS sources said. The receivables for the two-year FRN are currently warehoused in Credit Suisse First Boston's Alpine ABCP conduit.
Officials familiar with the deal said a fixed rate transaction was originally hoped for, but the market is keen for floating rate liabilities at the moment.
Chrysalis Group, a music and media corporation, completed the securitization of its global music publishing catalogue in a GBP60 million (US$87 million) deal, the largest music rights-backed deal, and the first for an international music publisher.
The securitization, structured and arranged by The Royal Bank of Scotland - Financial Markets, is funded by US-based MUSIC Finance Corp., a special purpose vehicle whose USD commercial paper funding is supported by the underlying transaction structure, as well as 100% liquidity support provided by RBS and Barclays Bank.
By selling into an asset-backed commercial paper conduit, the agents took advantage of less stringent disclosure requirements. The receivables are sold into a multiseller conduit, then issued as A1/P1 commercial paper.
Freddie Mac has priced $5 billion of 5.62%, 10-year Reference Notes due March 15, 2011. The issue was priced at 99.149 to yield 5.738%, or 84.5 basis points over the 5.0%, on-the-run 10-year U.S. Treasury security due in February 2011. Joint lead managers for the issue were Credit Suisse First Boston, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and Salomon Smith Barney. Co-managing the transaction were ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC Securities, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan & Co., Tokyo-Mitsubishi International, and UBS Warburg. The syndicate also consisted of a 14-member selling group.
Correction
Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the RG Receivable Co.'s $100 million airline ticket receivables deal from the Brazilian airline Varig to B3 from Caa1.
Calendar
March 26-27: New York, NY-The Strategic Research Institute will hold the fourth annual Asset Backed Commercial Paper Forum at the Grand Hyatt. For more information, call 800-599-4950 or visit www.srinstitute.com.
March 28: New York, NY-Ginnie Mae presents the Third Annual Investor Symposium. For more information visit www.ginniemae.gov or call (301) 721-5950.
April 1-3: Orlando, Florida-Standard & Poor's will host its annual Structured Finance Seminar. The keynote speaker will be Robert B. Reich, the former Secretary of Labor during President Bill Clinton's first term. For more information, call Standard & Poor's Events Marketing at (212) 438-2800, or visit www.standardandpoors.com
