La Trobe Financial prices first $102m RMBS issue

MELBOURNE, Australia - March 16, 2014 - PRLog -- In another first for credit specialist La Trobe Financial Services Pty Limited (La Trobe Financial), both La Trobe Financial as the Trust Manager and Commonwealth Bank of Australia Limited as Lead Manager, today confirmed that they have priced a capital markets Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (“RMBS”) issuance for the La Trobe Financial Capital Markets Trust 2014-1 (LFCMT 2014-1) covering over A$102 million of 586 well seasoned (weighted average seasoning 71.6 months), near prime mortgage backed securities with an average LVR of 61.6% and an average loan size of $174,084.

The transaction is La Trobe Financial’s first issue, and allows La Trobe Financial to broaden its funding capabilities with an RMBS programme as one component of the Group’s overall funding strategy from both domestic and overseas institutional grade investors.

The $102m RMBS transaction demonstrates La Trobe Financial’s strength and its commitment to meeting its continued growth and development in the market. With current trend loan originations now tipping circa $2 billion per year, this was a practical step to complement current Institutional mandates and our nationally awarded retail mortgage Fund growth over the past five years.

La Trobe Financial’s Chief Investment Officer, Mr Paul Wells, commented that “since 1952, La Trobe Financial has raised the majority of funding for its residential lending programme through medium and long term debt facilities and mandates from Australian and international banks. This has resulted in over $10 billion of loans being managed by the Group. Supporting historical funding with a capital markets RMBS issuance creates complementary opportunities to strengthen and expand our funding footprint with more investors both here and globally. This inaugural transaction demonstrates our capabilities to do so.”

The Class A Notes, wholly subscribed by a single investor, were structured as a single tranche rather than as two tranches as in previous comparable transactions in this sector. “We believe that investor appetite to the transaction is a strong endorsement of our business model, the credit quality of the underlying loan collateral and our expertise as a credit specialist” said Ryan Harkness, Head of Debt Capital Markets at La Trobe Financial.

Mr Rob Verlander, Head of Debt Markets Securitisation at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, commented, “The transaction represents a milestone for La Trobe Financial and demonstrates their ongoing support of the market for this asset class. It is our expectation that La Trobe Financial will be able to access this market regularly and successfully in the future.”

La Trobe Financial will be making further announcements shortly.

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