Lovell White Durrant has advised Ford Credit on e511.3m (£343m) of German retail auto loans in the latest sign of a burgeoning European market for securitisations. It is the first time auto loans have been securitised in Germany.
London-based capital markets partner Peter Voisey led the Lovells team, which has been advising Ford Credit since 1996 on its $5bn (£3.1bn) European securitisation programme. Voisey said Ford Credit approached Lovells when it began looking at setting up a single issuer platform for securitisations into the European market. "We said the idea was eminently doable," said Voisey, "although some people didn't."
Lovells then advised Ford Credit on the structuring of Globaldrive BV, a Dutch-based vehicle, through which Ford would pass its asset-backed note programme.
Voisey said Lovells had worked on the latest issue for over two-and-a-half years. He said it had taken that much time because Ford Credit needed to overhaul its computer systems in Germany to handle the complicated cash flows on the deal.
As in other continental European countries, securitisation in Germany has been slow to develop. But Voisey said recent domestic regulatory changes and the advent of Euroland had made the prospect of new issuers entering the market more likely.
Ford Bank in Cologne sold the assets to a Guernsey incorporated subsidiary of Globaldrive. Netherlands-based Globaldrive financed the transaction through a conventional secured Eurobond. Oppenhoff & Raedler advised Ford Bank in Germany, Ozannes acted for Globaldrive in Guernsey and Trenite van Doorne advised Ford Credit and Globaldrive in the Netherlands.
Freshfields' Ian Falconer in London and Andreas Bartsch in Frankfurt advised Deutsche Bank, who lead managed the bond issue. Last month, Falconer advised JP Morgan, lead manager of Abbey National's £1bn mortgage-backed bond issue, which included a tranche in euros.