Braunschweig, 23 April 2018. Volkswagen Bank GmbH has securitised Italian automobile credits and placed with investors for the first time. The Auto ABS (Asset Backed Securities) transaction Driver Italia one is secured solely by receivables of the Italian branch of the Volkswagen Bank GmbH. The securitisation transaction has a volume of more than 500 million euros.
"We are happy about the successful debut transaction. Italy is a major market for Volkswagen Financial Services. Consequently, we want to use our high-quality loan portfolio to further geographically diversify our ABS refinancing, "says Bernd Bode, Head of Group Treasury and Investor Relations at Volkswagen Bank GmbH, adding: "The broad lineup of Volkswagen Financial Services in relation to refinancing instruments and currencies has also been proved by the successful issuance in Norwegian kroner and Australian dollar."
During the bookbuilding process, the Class A Notes were placed at a price of 1-month Euribor plus 26 basis points and the Class B Notes at plus 50 basis points. The order books were oversubscribed 1.3 times (Class A) and 4.5 times (Class B) at placement pricing levels.
Volkswagen Financial Services has grown steadily in the Italian market in recent years. In the last fiscal year, the contract portfolio increased by 20.1 percent to around 730,000 contracts.
The following tranches were placed:
Class A: EUR 441.0 million
Rating: [AAA/Aa2/AA] [DBRS/Moody’s/S&P]
ISIN: XS1808851619
Class B: EUR 14,0 million
Rating: [A(high)/A1/A+] [DBRS/Moody’s/S&P]
ISIN: XS1808852773
With this transaction, the company marketed a diversified provisional pool of receivables of more than 62,000 financing contracts. Contracts for new vehicles make up around 93 percent of this figure, with 7 percent coming from used vehicle financing. The transaction bears the quality label "Certified by TSI - deutscher Verbriefungsstandard" from True Sale International GmbH. Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. and Credit Agricole CIB acted as Joint Lead Managers.
In addition, Volkswagen Financial Services were active on the capital market. Volkswagen Financial Services N.V. issued a bond (ISIN: XS1807499857) with a volume of 500 million Norwegian kroner, around 52 million euros. The term of the security is three years with a coupon of 2.0 percent per annum. In addition, Volkswagen Financial Services Australia Pty Limited placed a bond (ISIN: AU3CB0252328) worth more than 400 million Australian dollars, around 249 million euros, with a term of three years with an annual interest rate of 3.25 percent.
At the end of 2017, Auto ABS transactions amounting to EUR 33.7 billion (previous year: EUR 33.0 billion) accounted for around 18 percent of the refinancing for the Volkswagen Financial Services division. Other significant constituents of the funding mix were bonds with a figure of EUR 32.7 billion (around 18 percent) and customer deposits with EUR 33.5 billion (also around 18 percent).
