Avanti Finance's inaugural securitisation of AUD car loans was priced yesterday, with A$250 million in pass-through floating rate notes issued.  Sole arranger and lead manager Westpac disclosed the top rated $206 million tranche printed at 165 basis points over the 1-month bank bill swap rate. The transaction will be known as Avanti AU Auto ABS Trust 2023-1. The other classes of notes all printed at the lower end of the guidance that was provided by Westpac when the deal was launched a week ago – with the exception of the Class G notes (coupon "not disclosed"). The collateral pool backing these notes consists of motor vehicle loans to both consumers and commercial operations in Australia and New Zealand. The final term sheet from Westpac shows the collateral pool has an average loan size of $33,126 and a weighted average interest rate of 7.98 per cent. All loans are fixed term, and 66 per cent are new loans. Those loans were originated by and will be serviced by Branded Financial Services Pty Limited, a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of NZ non-bank lender Avanti Finance.  Avanti Finance was ranked as New Zealand's second-largest non-bank lender by KPMG in its two most recent non-bank financial institutions performance surveys.  The Avanti Finance website shows a multi-brand strategy operating across its NZ home market: a self-styled "flagship brand" provides personal, car and home loans; its GetCapital brand provides loans to SMEs; and the Bexhill Funding business offers "flexible insurance premium funding". Its cross Tasman subsidiary, Branded Financial Services, provides retail car loans and floorplan finance to dealers in Australia and high-end car finance in NZ.  BFS was acquired by Avanti in 2019 as part of an ambitious cross-Tasman expansion strategy – a plan that was then crimped by lockdowns.  Avanti's leadership team has been looking at ways of riding a post-Covid recovery, and has staked out Australia as a key part of these plans.  A Moody's Investors Service pre-sale report on this deal disclosed the value of the group's Australian retail receivables portfolio as approximately A$455 million, a fraction of Avanti's total NZ loan book. The most recent report from KPMG, covering the 2022 year, showed that Avanti increased its total loan book by NZ$525,030 to NZ$2,068,230.  This securitisation deal follows the appointment in March of Liesl Knox, previously Avanti Finance's chief risk officer at its NZ headquarters, as BFS chief executive officer. She has been tasked with running a strong growth agenda in Australia.