La Trobe prices over $1bn RMBS

Non-bank lender and wealth manager La Trobe Financial has announced pricing for its latest residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) issuance, which the firm claims had strong levels of over-subscription across all notes and good pricing outcomes.

The La Trobe Financial Capital Markets Trust 2019-12 raised $1.25 billion despite “recent market volatility and high levels of market supply”.

The arranger of the deal was National Australia Bank (NAB), while joint lead managers included the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Macquarie Bank, Natixis, United Overseas Bank and Westpac.

Other details of the pricing include:

• La Trobe Financial will pay 75 basis points over the bank bill swap rate (BBSW) on $209 million of A1S notes, which have a weighted average life of 0.40 years;
• Pricing on $666 million of A1L notes, which have a weighted average life of 2.80 years, was 135 basis points over BBSW;
• Pricing on $160 million of A2S notes, which have a weighted average life of 1.40 years, was 165 basis points over BBSW; and
• Pricing on $75 million of A2L notes, with a weighted average life of 4.00 years was 185 basis points over BBSW. Pricing on B to F notes ranged from 2.20 per cent to 7 per cent.

La Trobe Financial’s chief treasurer and strategy officer, Martin Barry, said this transaction follows a “successful” international and Australian roadshow.

“We welcome three new investors to our already 46 investor-strong RMBS program and are delighted by the strong interest we have received on this transaction both offshore and domestically as we build on our diverse investor base,” Mr Barry said.

“With this RMBS transaction we achieved competitive pricing notwithstanding increased levels of market supply and note participation from 15 domestic and seven international investors from Europe, USA, and Asia including Japan.”

La Trobe Financial, which has $9 billion assets under management, has issued just under $5 billion of RMBS to date to various Australian and international investors. The funding base includes institutional mandates and Australia’s largest credit fund.

Head of group portfolio management Richard Parry said: “With current trend loan originations now topping $10+ billion per year, this was a practical step to complement current institutional mandates and our nationally and internationally awarded $4.1 billion retail credit fund.”

La Trobe Financial is 80 per cent owned by New York-based asset management firm Blackstone, after it was acquired in December 2017 for an undisclosed amount.

[Related: La Trobe prices eighth $750m RMBS]

Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.