Columbus Capital yesterday said it will close its first mortgage-backed securitisation issue today. All tranches of the $255 million RMBS issue, Nautilus Series 2007-1, were sold to local investors. Columbus has been operating in the third party mortgage market for the past year. The company is a joint venture between a group of local directors and a Malaysian life insurance company, Malaysian Assurance Alliance. Company documents show that the local directors, Andrew Chepul, Robert Woodford and Ilias Pavlopoulos, hold 20 million ordinary shares. MAA holds 15 million preference shares through Columbus Capital Singapore.Earlier this year Columbus bought a portfolio of loans from Bluestone Group and those loans make up 80 per cent of the Nautilus issue. Columbus director Andrew Chepul said all the loans in the portfolio were prime credit and all were insured by MGIC. The loans are low-doc and the borrowers have an average period of self-employment of five years. The firm has endured weeks of adverse chatter over its continued access to funding. A fresh bout of these rumours prompted this newsletter's queries to Chepul.Columbus priced the class $204 million senior AAA notes at 69 basis points over the bank bill swap rate. Pricing on the other tranches was not disclosed.UBS, which is the provider of Columbus Capital's warehouse facility, was the lead manager of the issue.