Plenti prices ABS

John Kavanagh

Consumer lender Plenti Group has completed an issue of asset-backed securities, raising A$437 million.

Plenti Auto ABS 2022-1 is backed by the company’s auto loans. The company’s inaugural auto ABS was in August last year, when it raised $307 million.

Plenti Group chief financial officer Miles Drury said in a statement that the issue attracted several new large international investors.

The A notes, worth $361 million, were priced at a margin of 140 basis points over the one-month bank bill swap rate.

The A-X notes, worth $7 million, were priced at 135 bps over one-month BBSW and the B notes, worth $33.3 million, were priced at a margin of 235 bps.

The C, D, E and F notes were priced in a range from 255 to 715 bps.

The A and A-X notes in last year’s ABS transaction were priced at a margin of 80 bps. The B to F notes were priced between 110 bps and 620 bps.

Plenti’s originations in the year to March were up 134 per cent to $1.1 billion and the loan portfolio grew 111 per cent to $1.3 billion.

Plenti charged an average interest rate of 9.4 per cent in the year to March, down from 11.2 per cent in 2020/21. The fall reflected the change in its business mix from predominantly personal loans to more auto and renewables loans.

Following its entry into the public securitisation market, its funding rate fell from 5.7 per cent to 3.6 per cent. But in recent months the company’s funding costs have been rising in line with interest rate movements.