Alantra acts as the sole arranger for Lowell’s first rated ABS

May 2022

Securitisation – Sole arranger and financial advisor

Value £315.4 million

Alantra, the global investment banking and asset management specialist, is pleased to announce that it has acted as the sole-arranger for Lowell´s first rated ABS, in the first publicly rated unsecured RPL securitisation in Europe.

The underlying portfolio comprises over 356,000 UK re-performing receivables, totalling £315.4m in gross book value (“GBV”) and £180m in expected remaining collections (“ERC”), which have been acquired by Lowell Financial Limited (a leading European debt purchaser, headquartered in the UK) from UK lenders and credit providers over a 10-year period. The accounts in the portfolio were paying over a 6-month period prior to cut-off date with the vast majority being on payment plans.

The structure includes two classes of notes: Senior notes of £100.6m and Junior notes of c. £79.9m. Senior notes of the transaction have been rated A by DBRS and Scope. The Sponsor retains 100% of Junior notes on day one and is planning to sell 51% in the secondary market at a later stage.

Edwin Harrap, Director at Alantra, commented “We are delighted to have supported Lowell in this innovative and first of its kind transaction. Lowell’s core business is the rehabilitation of non paying accounts and Project Wolf allows Lowell to accelerate the monetization of these paying accounts via investment grade notes at attractive terms”.