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.
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