Liberty prices its eleventh auto securitisation

2020-01-30T00:00:00.000Z

Liberty Financial (Liberty) today priced its A$300 million Liberty Series 2020-1 Auto ABS issue, its forty-ninth public term securitisation in Australia. The Liberty Series 2020-1 Auto Trust is Liberty’s eleventh securitisation of Australian auto loans issued by Liberty bringing Liberty’s total auto loan securitisations to approximately A$1.9 billion.

Given the strong investor demand across all offered tranches, the transaction was upsized from a launch volume of A$250 million to A$300 million. National Australia Bank (NAB) is the sole Arranger. NAB is also a Joint Lead Manager along with Merrill Lynch International. The transaction comprises A$300 million of notes rated by Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s). The transaction attracted strong interest from investors across all offered tranches.

The A$225.0 million Class A notes to be rated Aaa(sf), with a weighted average life of about 1.7 years, priced at a margin of 95 basis points over one month BBSW.

The Class B, C, D, E F and G notes are expected to be rated Aa3(sf), A2(sf), Baa2(sf), Ba2(sf) B2(sf) and NR, respectively, with pricing undisclosed.

"NAB are extremely pleased with the level of institutional investor participation across the capital structure and their willingness to support the transaction. The success of this transaction confirms Liberty is a leading non-bank benchmark issuer of asset backed securities in the Australian market," Craig Stevens, Director Securitisation NAB, said.

Peter Riedel, Chief Financial Officer at Liberty, said: “Liberty is a leader in providing households and small businesses with the freedom to choose from a wide range of products and services to meet their financial needs. We are grateful for the support investors have extended to our business.”

Liberty has a rating of “STRONG” from Standard & Poor’s for the servicing of prime and non-prime mortgages as well as for servicing auto loans and commercial mortgages. Liberty is also Australia’s only investment grade rated non-bank issuer (BBB-, outlook stable by S&P) and one of only a few lenders with an unblemished capital markets record with no ratings downgrades or charge-offs ever experienced by its securitisation program.