BMW Finance makes asset-backed debut
BMW Finance will make its debut in the asset-backed market in Australia this week, with marketing under way for a A$734 million securitisation of motor vehicle chattel mortgages and hire purchase receivables.Through BMW Finance Trust 2012, the vendor financing arm of the car maker, BMW will refinance 17,600 loans with an average balance of A$41,600 and an average term to maturity of 40 months. The average balloon payment on each loan is A$29,600.There is a $600 million senior tranche and a $134 million subordinated tranche. The senior tranche qualified for an AAA rating from Fitch Ratings, which publicised the deal on Friday.National Australia Bank was the other bank seeking funding in the mortgage-backed securities market late last week, on this occasion through its subsidiary Clydesdale Bank, which priced a three-part US dollar bond, Reuters reported. Clydesdale, through Lanark Master Issuer PLC Series 2012-2, sold US$800 million of AAA-rated notes at par, with a weighted average life of 3.07 years and a spread of 140 basis points over the three-month Libor.The bank also sold a £525 million tranche of AAA notes with a weighted average life of 4.92 years. The sterling notes were priced at par with a spread of 163 basis points over the three-month Libor.Clydesdale retained a third, unrated, tranche of £75 million, which was retained by the bank.Westpac, meanwhile, upsized to A$1.5 billion the size of its subordinated note issue. Westpac set the margin for the notes at 275 bps, at the low end of the range quoted earlier last week. The Westpac subordinated notes have the familiar ten year, non-call for five, maturity structure. Any early redemption of the bonds is subject to approval by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.The offer opens today and will close on August 16. Trading on a deferred settlement basis, on the ASX, will begin on August 24.