Volvofinans, the market company owned by Ford Credit International and the Swedish Volvo dealers, has signed a euro500 million ($440.4 million) Euro-CP programme to complement its domestic CP and MTN programmes. SEB Merchant Banking is the arranger. Lars Norland, treasurer at Volvofinans, says the programme's main purpose is to diversify the funding sources of the company, but the issuer is not planning to use the facility in the immediate future. He says: "The Swedish market will still be our main source of funds, and we only appointed two dealers on the Euro-CP facility as we don't expect to be a very frequent issuer. However we will use it from time to time, and will make our first trade in the near future." It is the first time Volvofinans has had access to the international capital markets, and with an A-2 rating from Standard & Poor's, it may find the competition intense. But Volvo Group, which wholly-owned Volvofinans before it sold a 50% stake to Ford Credit International last summer, has had a long relationship with the Euro-CP market, and the name recognition factor will play a big part in helping the newcomer sell its credit. Norland says: "This is a new type of funding for us, as we only had our Skr15 billion ($1.46 billion) domestic CP programme and our Skr4 billion domestic MTN programme before. Although they both had the capability of issuing in euro, we only use them domestically, so this new programme will be a helpful addition." Euro, sterling and US dollar will be the main currencies used, and maturities will be concentrated around one month and six months, although others will be considered. Credit Suisse First Boston joins SEB Merchant Banking on the dealer panel.
April 05, 2002