Macquarie Securitisation launches A$750 million PUMA P-10 bond issue

18 June 2004

Macquarie Securitisation Limited, the manager of the PUMA residential mortgage backed securitisation programme, announced today that it has launched an A$750 million bond issue, its first A$ denominated issue for 2004.  Macquarie’s last A$ bond issue was the October 2003 A$700m PUMA P-9 Series A issue.

Macquarie Securitisation’s Treasurer Matthew O’Hare said the PUMA Masterfund P-10 Series A bonds will be issued in two tranches; one floating rate senior tranche and one floating rate subordinated tranche.  The Class A senior notes will have a face value of A$735 million and a weighted average life of approximately 2.5 years and are expected to be rated AAA by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Group and Aaa by Moody’s Investors Service.  The Class B subordinated notes will have a face value of A$15 million, representing 2.0% subordination, and a weighted average life of approximately 5.9 years and are expected to be rated AA- by Standard & Poor’s and Aa3 by Moody’s.  Both tranches will carry a floating rate of interest and will be priced at a margin above the one month bank bill rate.

Mr O’Hare, said  “The P-10 bond issue will be collateralised by a pool of mortgage loans with a weighted average current loan to value ratio of 69% and a weighted average seasoning of 20 months.  There are no stated income (or “Low Doc”) loans in the P-10 pool.  The loans carry primary mortgage insurance provided by either the GE or PMI mortgage insurance groups.  The bonds will be exempt from interest withholding tax.”

Macquarie Securitisation last month launched and priced its debut 100% stated income securitisation issue.  That bond issue, known as PUMA Global Trust S-1, was the first US$ denominated securitisation transaction by an Australian issuer backed solely by stated income loans.  The S-1 transaction met with very strong reception from US, European and Asian investors enabling it to be upsized from US$750m to US$1.1bn (A$1.6bn equivalent), also making it the largest low doc bond issue by an Australian issuer.”

Mr O’Hare commented “Our recent decision to securitise our stated income loans in a separate bond issue has enabled us to offer a transaction which is 100% backed by income verified loans.  Additionally, as this is our first securitisation of fully verified loans since October 2003, the seasoning of the pool is higher than a traditional PUMA transaction would carry at 20 months.   We anticipate that this transaction will receive strong interest from both domestic and offshore institutions.”

Macquarie Debt Markets and Deutsche Bank AG are joint lead managers and book runners to the issue. PUMA Masterfund P-10 Series A will be marketed to investors during the week commencing June 21st and is expected to price on or about June 29th, 2004.

Through the PUMA Programme, Macquarie has raised a total of A$21.9 billion in 23 separate issues since 1993, involving 15 public issues in Australia, 5 public issues in the Euro markets and 5 global issues, making Macquarie the largest issuer of mortgage backed securities in Australia.

For further information, please contact:

Matthew O'Hare
Head of Funding
Macquarie Securitisation Limited
Tel: (612) 8232 3481

Matthew Russell
Public Relations
Macquarie Bank Limited
Tel: (612) 8232 4102
Mobile: (614) 1069 9532

*The Product Ruling refers only to the application of taxation laws to the GEI plus and does not represent an endorsement by the ATO of the commercial viability or of the soundness of the GEI plusas an investment, or of the reasonableness or commerciality of any fees charged. The Product Ruling is only binding on the ATO if the circumstances of the investor entering into the GEI plus are as described in the Product Ruling under the heading “Arrangement”.