ING Bank is bringing the Netherlands' first auto lease securitization to market in the coming weeks. Mark Bronder, Amsterdam-based director of securitization, says the E350 million deal, dubbed Athlon Securitisation, will be backed by car lease contracts from Athlon Groep, the Netherlands' largest independent lease company. Bronder explains that such a deal has not been done before in the Netherlands because operating leases are considered to be future flows under Dutch law, making deals difficult to structure.
Bronder expects the deal to be priced by May 8. As of last Friday, price talk on the deal was low 40 basis points over three-month EURIBOR for the triple-A notes and high 90s for the single-As. Bronder says the steep price reflects the deal's complexity and its first-time status. He says there are a number of leasing companies in the Netherlands' that may consider deals. The businesses are capital-intensive by nature and with bank funding drying up, securitization has become a funding alternative.
