Auto leasing

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of April 2-8

The $1.18 billion deal is also the first to include Tesla’s mid-range Model Y vehicle (with an MSRP of $54, 119) that makes up 36% of the securitized value of the TALT 2021-A pool, according to a presale report from Moody’s Investors Service.

Almost 54% of the leases issued through Santander Consumer's Chrysler Capital unit are for terms beyond 36 months, the highest-ever share of extended-term contracts.

The two deals will add to the pipeline of 2021 prime auto-lease transactions led earlier this month by Hyundai Capital America.

The notes offering is the largest among the 21 auto-lease deals HCA has issued since 2011, and the fourth that has topped $1 billion in offered notes.

The agency cited improving used-car prices that have elevated resale values of off-lease vehicles that drivers are turning back into dealerships.

The captive-finance lender for U.S. Mercedes-Benz deals closed on its second transaction of the year, and the first auto-lease ABS to price since July.

One of the risk factors was lower expected values that Moody's and S&P applied for vehicles at the end of the contract period, in comparison to prior Ford vehicle-lease securitizations.

The captive-finance lender for General Motors is providing lower expectations for the vehicles' future residual values, compared to its prior lease ABS deals, in recognition of the likely severe recessionary impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

The lease deal – Santander’s sixth ABS of Chrysler Capital leases since 2017 – has a higher proportion of leases with original terms longer than 36 months (44.5%) than prior deals through the platform.

Toyota Motor Credit Co. is sponsoring a $1.25 billion loan-backed transaction (potentially upsized to $1.75 billion), while regional Toyota captive finance lender World Omni Finance Corp. is sponsoring an auto-lease deal at either $766.5 million or $962.9 million.

Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Ford will market up to $3.86 billion in new prime auto-lease securitizations, adding to a pipeline that opened up with Hyundai's deal last week.

Hyundai Auto Lease Securitization 2020-A will have a collateral pool with more than a quarter of underlying leases exceeding 43 months – compared to just 19.4% in its previous lease ABS transaction that priced last August.

Tesla’s sponsorship of the $940.95 million Tesla Auto Lease Trust 2019-A comes as the battery-electric vehicle (BEV) manufacturer has regained its footing with a surprise third-quarter profit and overcome recent manufacturing woes on its mass-market Model 3 vehicle.

According to presale reports, Mercedes-Benz Auto Lease Trust (MBALT) 2019-B will have only two months over the life of the deal in which there is more than a 5% concentration of expected lease maturities.

Loss expectations are up slightly for the second retail auto lease securitization of the year for RAC King the parent company of the regional “buy here/pay here” used-car chain American Car Center.

In the pool of 46,070 vehicles in the $1 billion pool or 59,863 in the $1.3 billion pool, none are equipped with diesel engines that were at the center of Volkswagen’s worldwide emissions scandal in 2015.

Regional Toyota captive finance lender World Omni has its highest-ever average FICO for a securitization of prime auto-lease receivables. But it also is pooling a portfolio of contracts that have a highly concentrated mix of lease maturities.

The $1.11 billion Ford Credit Auto Lease Trust (FCALT) 2019-B has 20.2% of the securitization value tied to leases with terms over 36 months – up from 14.4% in FCALT 2019-A. It's the largest percentage for a Ford lease ABS deal since 2014.

For the first time, the captive-finance lender has also opted to add SOFR-based benchmark rate "fallback" plans into one of its deals, which would stand in for one-month Libor should the London interbank offered rate becomes unavailable in 2021.