-- Daniel O’Leary
Staffordshire, England-based Britannia plans to issue and place with investors a £2.5 billion ($3.9 billion) residential mortgage-backed securities issue called Silk Road Finance Number One. Fitch Ratings gave the deal AAA while Moody’s Investors Service rated it Aaa. An official at Britannia said the London-based syndication desks of JPMorgan and HSBC will be joint book-runners for the deal.
This is Britannia’s first RMBS deal since its formation on April 29, 2009, when Co-operative Financial Services and the Britannia Building Society merged. Britannia Building Society and Co-operative have also never issued an RMBS deal. This is Europe’s second residential securitization of the year, following Lloyd’s Banking Group’s Permanent 2010-1 deal last month (TSCI, 22/01/10).
A syndicate official at JPM said a roadshow will begin this week and the deal is expected to close next week. A HSBC syndicate official said £1 billion ($1.56 billion) of the £2.5 billion ($3.91 billion) A1 class had been preplaced with JPM. The rest of the A1’s class is open to third party investors. The bonds are subject to a put-option on their expected maturity date in March, 2015, he said.