Bear Stearns was marketing a $1.1 billion conduit deal last week, ushering in a heavy month of issuance that is expected to top $10 billion, according to BW sister publication Real Estate Finance & Investment. The offering, which was followed by an approximately $992 million conduit from the team of Credit Suisse First Boston, PNC Bank and Key Bank, was being eagerly received by investors, who have seen little new issuance this year. Chris Hoeffel, managing director at Bear Stearns, said he expected the securitization to be completed by Friday afternoon.
The Bear Stearns offering is its sixth TOP deal, a program that uses collateral originated by Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley, Principal Commercial Funding and Wells Fargo Bank. The 5.7-year, triple-A bonds were seeing price talk of swaps plus 44 while the benchmark 10-year, triple-A bonds were being shopped at swaps plus 46.
According to a presale report from Standard & Poor's, the offering is made up of 150 loans on 179 properties, with a strong debt-service-coverage ratio of 1.61. Retail makes up 40.6% of the properties, with office comprising another 33.1%. About $5 billion of March's issuance will be conduit paper, with a mix of large loan and single-borrower deals comprising the remainder.