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STUDENT loans were securitised in the UK for the first time this week, as Greenwich NatWest brought a highly complex L1.03bn deal parcelling a unique portfolio of assets.
NatWest had earlier won the mandate to privatise the first tranche of state loans to students in a year long competition organised by NM Rothschild & Sons.
Special purpose vehicle The Higher Education Securitised Investments Series No 1 plc (THESIS 1) issued four tranches of public bonds - two rated triple-A and two at triple-B. These are supported by two privately placed unrated tranches.
"We are delighted with the deal," said Steve Jones, head of syndicate at NatWest. "The bonds were placed with a very diverse range of accounts, which is particularly pleasing given that it is a new asset class, and we had only two weeks and two days to bring the deal after winning the mandate."
Jones continued: "All the premarketing was done through oneon-one meetings - our sales force put a huge amount of effort into explaining the structure and discovering the pricing investors required. The 'A1' tranche came at the tight end of the range, the 'A3' a little wide, and the others in line."
Jones said that the 'A1' tranche was one and a half times oversubscribed. UK financial institutions dominated, but a fair amount of fund management money and one or two corporates came in, he said.
Overseas, the bank placed paper with Dublin-based German institutions as well as banks and other investors on the Continent, and sold some paper into the US 144A market.
Jones added: "The longer dated triple-A tranche is substantially sold, and we have placed a significant amount of the triple-B pieces. A lot of investors have placed orders and are working through the credit approval process.
"These...