Impala bridges the ABS gap

Car loans for dentists, and equipment leases for medical practices are the substance behind a rare placement of asset-backed bonds under way at the moment.

Details emerged yesterday for the Impala Trust Series 2010-1, which Investec Bank (Australia) and ANZ are marketing at the moment. The trust will refinance $241 million in leases in a six-tranche structure, including a $6.6 million seller note.

Investec's Experian equipment financing arm is the originator of the loans. Experian has origins in a medical financing business established in the 1990s and has had links to the bank since 2004. Investec moved to full ownership in 2007.

Marketing material for the trust notes that while Experian provides trade finance, business loans and commercial property financing, the receivables pooled in the present Impala trust are motor vehicle leases and equipment leases.

The pre-sale report for the trust prepared by Standard & Poor's shows that the average loan is $48,000, the average seasoning eleven months and the average interest rate near enough to nine per cent.

Asset-backed bond issues remain pretty rare. CNH sold $350 million in securities to refinance leases over harvesters and other agricultural equipment last month. The previous such deal was from Lloyd's Capital Finance which sold $621 million of car and truck leases in November 2009, and the only ABS deal in Australia in the last quarter of 2009.