The market for asset-backed securities has an almost boom-time air about it, with the last week's record-breaking flow being followed by yet more new issuance. Macquarie and Woolworths are both promoting various asset-backed bonds this week. Macquarie is refinancing an A$495 million pool of old - by Australian standards - home loans through the PUMA Masterfund P-17. The average seasoning on the loans is five-and-a-half years, which is longer than the life of the average home loan. The Australian Office of Financial Management will be an investor in the transaction. The second new deal is a commercial mortgage-backed security, a relative rarity in the Australian market. The last CMBS was offered in September 2010. The CMBS issuer is ALE Finance Company, an entity which has already been used to sell $130 million in debt in 2006. The issuer is now selling a further $160 million in debt secured over a portfolio of 85 pubs owned by Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group Limited. Woolworths and the Bruce Mathieson Group, operator of the pubs, are the owners of ALE.