I! WHARF CNL. Successful securitization Hot deals from Hong Kong I New publication What's NewS Issue 5 August/September 2000 I 3 On Julv 20, Rabobank International successfully co-lead a USD 280 mil- lion private placement of franchise lease asset backed ccrtificates for CNL APF Partners, FP, a C-l cliënt of the bank since 1997. The transaction was co-managed by Bank of America, Rabobank and Pru dential Securities and was launched in two AAA-rated tranches with average lives of 5.5 and 13 years. The first term asset backed private placement managed by the capital markets team in New York, the transaction complements RI's strong, growing conduit warehouse securitiza tion finance business. Further, Rl was able to build on its exten- sive relationship with the company, for whont a USD 150 million securitization warehouse facility has been provided since 1997. The CNL deal also demonstrates RI's cap ital markets capabilities to other issuers and investors in the global asset backed markets, making full use of RI's expertise American Properties Fund, Ine in the growing fran chise finance capital markets in the US. Rabobank's success with CNL is due to the efforts of many individuals through- out the RI nctwork, including: securitiza tion - Sheldon Sussman, Eraj Asadi, Wing Ng and Gary Gal; sales, trading, and syn- dicate - Rich Bennett, Holly Hellman, Ed- die Villiers, and Greg Neville; and corpo- rate banking's Adrian Weststrate and Tom Dawe. Throughout the summer, our team in Hong Kong has been working hard to ensure the success of two major trans- actions - a HKD 4.5 billion loan facilitv to a wholly-owned sub- sidiary of the Wharf Group, and a HKD 300 million loan fa cility to East Asia Heller Ltd - a 50/50 joint venture between Heller Financial and the Bank of East Asia. In June, members of the Hong Kong office secured RI's role as coordinating arranger and underwriter in the HKD 4.5 billion 5-year term loan facility for Success Record Limited, 100% owned by conglomerate The Wharf (Holdings) Ltd. Rl was invited by the bor- rower to jointly lead this transaction with six other banks, including ABNAMRO, BA Asia, Citibank, SG, DBS, and BOCI Capital. Thanks to our solid performance in the Hong Kong syndicated loan market in 1999 and 2000, a close relationship with the Wheelock/Wharf Group, proac- tive marketing efforts, and a quick re sponse to the customer's needs, the trans action proceeded smoothly and quickly. Efficiënt management during the syndica- tion process helped RI obtain the ap- proval of RICC to underwrite HKD 750 million with target final hold of no more than HKD 350 million. And, with the favourable market response, the sell-down target was exceeded with final commit- ntent reduced to HKD 280 million. One of the largest landlords and container terminal operators in Hong Kong, the 5 1.5Wheelock-owned Wharf (Hold ings) Ltd. is involved in container terminal and air cargo operations, public trans- portation, infrastructure, hotels, telecom- munications and property investment. Wharf is also involved in container ports, with 51% holding in MTL - Hong Kong's second largest con tainer port operator, lts niarket capitalization is over HKD 41 billion. In ntid-July, our team in Hong Kong secured its second big deal of the summer - with the HKD 300 million loan facility. The borrower, East Asia Heller, was established in 1971 by the Bank of East Asia and Heller Fi nancial. Its business includes asset-based financing through factoring and leasing to small and medium-sized enterprises in Hong Kong. In addition, East Asia Heller has recently established a new vendor fi nancing program for manufacturers, dis- tributors and dealers in information tech- nology, networking and telecommunica- tions. Vendors include such big names as IBM and Oracle. The transaction was over-subscribed in general syndication with a total number of six participating banks - RI, Standard Chartered Bank, ABNAMRO, China Construction Bank, Den Danske Bank and Fuji Bank. Rabobank will act as arranger, joint un derwriter and facility agent for this trans action. Team members to be congratu- lated for the transactions include: Alex Cheung, head of corporate commercial banking; May Wong Tung, head of corpo rate finance, NE Asia; Berry Marttin, head of international corporates; Edmond Leung, head of local Chinese corpo rates; Keivin Ho, senior relationship man ager; and Brian But, associate director, syndication NE Asia. Equity Strategy tuf O Outlook lor tquMy Mvkrti RI's Financial Markets Research team in Utrecht has recently released the first in a new series of Equity Strategy Reports. The report, 'Euro Equity Outlook', - has been made in cooperation with Rabo Securities, who serve as RI's equity broker in Amsterdam. Featur- ing a general market outlook, economie updates, Eu- test ropean sector valuation and 'special items' - the cur- rent issue offers an alternative approach to the equity risk premium - the reports will appear on a bi-monthly basis. If you would like to be added to the mailing list for this equity publication, or if one or more of your clients wishes to receive it, please contact Claire Heslenfeld at Rabo Securities by email with your name, organization and telephone number. Established 1886

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