Firstmac Bond Series 2-2004 $400 million mortgage backed securitisation issue launches today

03 August 2004

Macquarie Debt Markets announced today that the First Mortgage Group is launching a $400 million residential mortgage backed securitisation issue out of its Firstmac Mortgage Securitisation Programme.

This is the third public issue out of the Firstmac Mortgage Securitisation Programme. The first issue was successfully completed in August 2003, with a second issue following in April 2004.

Macquarie is arranger and lead manager of the transaction and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited and HSBC Bank plc are co managers.

The Bonds will be rated by each of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Fitch Ratings (Fitch).

The structure will be as follows:

The transaction has been structured so that the rating of the senior notes is not reliant on lenders mortgage insurance. The level of subordination provided by the Class B Notes is 9.6% of the total issue size. S&P’s requirement for subordination before taking into account mortgage insurance is 8.6% and Fitch’s requirement is 8.5%.

Teresa Neal, Associate Director of Macquarie Bank Debt Markets said: “We are pleased to be leading the third public term issue from the Firstmac Mortgage Securitisation Programme.  We believe that the generous level of subordination will appeal to investors and therefore expect the issue to be well received.  There is an ability to diversify the structure of the Class A2 Notes to appeal to AUD LIBOR investors, by issuing a Class A2-2 tranche with a coupon based on AUD LIBOR BBA.”

The issue is expected to price on or before 13 August 2004 and will settle on 18 August 2004.

For further information, please contact:

Teresa Neal
Associate Director
Debt Finance
Tel: (612) 8232 3844