Huntington's $963 Million TALF Eligible Bond Deal Sold
March 20 2009 - 11:38AM
Dow Jones News
Huntington National Bank's prime auto loan-backed deal sold
Friday morning.
The $963 million deal has seven tranches, the bulk of which are
eligible for funding under the Federal Reserve's consumer loan
program, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or
TALF.
Three other deals that are eligible under TALF sold on Thursday.
Ford Motor Credit Co. sold its $2.954 billion deal backed by auto
receivables. Citigroup's (C) sold a $3 billion credit card
loan-backed deal and Nissan Motor Co. sold (NSANY)an auto
loan-backed $1.3 billion bond deal.
The Fed's facility sparked a flurry of issuance this week.
Investors applied for $4.7 billion in loans from the TALF,
according to data from the central bank. The $200 billion program
is aimed at reviving the securitization market, which went into
hibernation during the financial crisis in the past few months.
The bulk of requests were loans for deals in the credit card
sector, which accounted for $2.8 billion in applications.
Auto-sector deals accounted for the remaining $1.9 billion. No
applications were received for deals in the student-loan and
small-business sectors.
In the Huntington offering, the $217 million, 0.33-year portion
sold at 55 basis points over a short-term futures benchmark.
The $139 million, 0.91-year tranche sold at 225 basis points
over a short-term futures benchmark.
The $366 million, 1.87-year portion sold at 250 basis points
over the short-term futures benchmark and the $108 million,
2.98-year portion sold at 400 basis points over interpolated
swaps.
The Fed is issuing loans to investors so they can purchase newly
created top-tier bonds backed by auto, credit-card, student and
small business loans. The bank also added securities backed by
floorplan loans, vehicle fleet leases, loans and leases for
business equipment and those backed by mortgage servicing advances
to the list of collateral for which it would provide funds.
The Fed has said the facility could be increased to $1 trillion
and include residential and mortgage-backed securities.
The Fed has issued several clarifications about who would be
eligible for the funds, saying if a borrower posts "eligible
collateral there should be every expectation of financing."
-By Anusha Shrivastava, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2371; anusha.shrivastava@dowjones.com