Liberty prices $300m SME loan securitisation
Liberty Financial yesterday priced its fourth and largest issue of securities to be backed by a portfolio of small-to-medium enterprise loans. The Liberty Series 2015-1 SME transaction is the specialty finance group's thirty-second public term securitisation in Australia.The transaction comprises A$300 million of notes, and pricing was in line with the initial guidance provided when the deal was launched on Tuesday.The collateral consists of a pool of SME mortgages secured over Australian commercial or residential properties. The pool has a weighted average loan-to-value ratio of approximately 62 per cent. In addition, the collateral is well seasoned, at approximately 27 months. Using S&P's own classifications in its presale report, 56.9 per cent of the pool is residential property, 33.4 per cent commercial property and 9.8 per cent "other". The borrowers were classified as: investors (27.0 per cent) owner-occupied (48.1 per cent) borrowers and self-managed superannuation funds (24.9 per cent).Details of the top two tranches, both rated AAA by S&P, as disclosed by Liberty:• The $A195.0 million Class A1 notes were priced at a margin of 150 basis points over one month BBSW and have a weighted average life of about 1.8 years; • The $A21.0 million Class A2 notes were priced at a margin of 195 basis points over one month BBSW, and have a weighted average life of about 3.7 years.The pricing for the Class B, C, D, E and F notes (to be rated AA, A, BBB, BB, and B respectively) was not disclosed.The Liberty Series 2015-1 SME transaction will settle on 22 September 2015.Westpac Banking Corporation is the arranger and joint lead manager with Credit Suisse for the transaction.