American Home Mtge Servicing's $600 Million Deal TALF Eligible
September 28 2009 - 4:44PM
Dow Jones News
American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. is offering a $600 million
deal that is eligible for funding under a Federal Reserve program,
according to a person familiar with the matter.
This is the latest deal being shopped ahead of the next loan
application deadline for the central bank's facility to boost the
consumer loan-backed market on Oct. 2. Joint leads on the deal are
Deutsche Bank and RBS.
Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG) also has a $700 million asset-backed
securities deal eligible for the program, according to a term
sheet.
The eighth loan application deadline for the Fed's Term
Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, is Friday and
investors can procure cheap loans from the central bank to buy
newly created consumer loan-backed securities.
Other issuers tapping the market ahead of this deadline include
Ford Motor Co. (F) with a $1 billion bond and Citi Financial Auto
with a $1.40 billion auto-sector deal.
For years, consumer loans were packaged together into bonds and
sold to other investors in a process known as securitization.
Lenders took cash from these bonds and made new loans, helping
lower the cost of borrowing for consumers. This efficiently ramped
up credit and helped fuel the lending boom that came to an abrupt
halt with the credit crisis. The Fed has helped prop up this market
with TALF.
More than $100 billion in such deals have been sold since the
launch of the TALF program in March, with the bulk being eligible
for the central bank's facility. Auto-sector deals comprise the
majority of issuance, followed by credit card debt-backed
bonds.
Last week, Mercedes-Benz Financial offered a $1.08 billion prime
retail auto loan-backed deal, according to a person familiar with
the matter. That deal, called MBART 2009-1, has four tranches and
is also eligible for TALF funds.
About $15 billion in bonds sold in the last round of loan
applications in September. Issuers included American Express Co.
(AXP) and Citigroup Inc. (C) in the credit card-backed sector, and
Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY), Ford and Hyundai (HYMLY) in the auto
sector.
When the program was first launched, deals worth $8.3 billion
were sold despite investor concern over lengthy documentation and
other legal requirements.
The attractive terms of the program, where investors can walk
away from the loans if anything goes awry, have drawn investors to
a market that virtually shut down after the collapse of Lehman
Bros., when investors grew wary of asset-backed securities
deals.
Issuers have also offered deals that are not eligible for TALF
funding: last week, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) sold a credit
card loan-backed deal that investors bought without using TALF
money. Avis Budget (CAR) also sold a $450 million 3.18 year
non-TALF bond.
TALF also includes funding for existing and new commercial
mortgage-backed securities. That portion of the program started
later than the consumer loan-backed portion, which was launched in
March.
The program has been extended into next year. TALF loans against
newly issued asset-backed securities and existing commercial
mortgage-backed securities will be extended through March 31, 2010.
For newly issued CMBS, which take a long time to put together, the
extension is until June 30, 2010. The TALF program could total $1
trillion.
-By Anusha Shrivastava, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2227;
anusha.shrivastava@dowjones.com