Equipment finance company CNH Capital yesterday launched an issue of asset-backed securities, seeking to raise A$350 million. CNH is part of the global finance division of CNH Global NV, which was created in 1999 through the merger of New Holland and Case Corp - both manufacturers of agricultural equipment. CNH Capital has operated in Australia for 29 years. It is a specialist in the agricultural and construction sectors and sells chattel mortgage, finance leases, equipment hire purchase, dealer floor plan finance and equipment remarketing.For the year to December 2010, the company reported revenue of $43.4 million and net profit of $15.3 million. Earnings were down from $32.5 million in 2009. This was due largely to a significant change in the fair value of derivatives but the company also reported a jump in impairment expenses from $7.4 million to $10.7 million.Standard & Poor's yesterday issued a pre-sale report on the deal, CNH Capital Australia Receivables Trust Series 2011-1. S&P assigned preliminary ratings of A-1 to the top tranche and AAA to the A-2 tranche.One of the unusual features of the CNH business is that it allows borrowers to match payments to business cash flows. More than 50 per cent of contracts have payments falling due annually, in line with cash flow from harvesting operations.The asset pool in the latest deal is made up of 3896 contracts, with a weighted average contract seasoning of 11 months and a weighted average term to maturity of 42 months. Ninety five per cent of the contracts are chattel mortgages.