Zopa securitisation issue priced

ZOPA’S £138m securitisation has been priced, Peer-to-Peer Finance News has learnt.

London-listed investment trust P2P Global Investments owns the peer-to-peer platform’s loans that are being securitised and is sponsoring the transaction. News of the deal, which will be the first ever securitisation of unsecured consumer loans in Europe, emerged last week.

The practice, already popular in the US P2P sector, involves packaging up loans and selling them off in tranches to institutional investors.

The £114m senior tranche of class A notes have been given a coupon of 1.45 per cent and matures in 0.91 years.

The £7.5m tranche of class B notes has a coupon of 2.9 per cent and matures in 2.25 years.

The £7.5m tranche of class C notes has a coupon of four per cent and matures in 2.53 years.

All three tranches have been priced at par.

The coupons of the class D and Z bonds have not yet been disclosed.

The 27,137 loans backing the deal have been sold by P2PGI. The loans have mainly been used to finance cars, home improvements and service existing debts.

P2PGI set up the securitisation vehicle, which is called Marketplace Originated Consumer Assets.  Deutsche Bank is the sole arranger and lead manager on the new issue.

The most senior tranche of notes gained an Aa3 rating from Moody’s and received Fitch’s top rating on any marketplace securitisation, AA-.  

The UK’s P2P finance sector is gradually getting more involved in the securitisation space. Earlier this year, Funding Circle became the first UK platform to securitise its loans.

Deutsche Bank, Zopa and P2PGI declined to comment.