Macquarie prices $A350 Million PUMA Masterfund S-5 RMBS transaction

26 October 2007

Macquarie Securitisation Limited, the manager of the PUMA residential mortgage backed securitisation program, today announced that it has priced the $A350 million PUMA Masterfund S-5 bond issue. The issue size was increased from the original A$250 million offered to investors.

The Class A senior notes, to be rated AAA by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Group and Aaa by Moody’s Investors Service, with a face value of $A315 million and a weighted average life of approximately 2.4 years, were priced at a margin of 0.58 per cent (58 basis points) over 1-month BBSW. The Class B subordinated notes are to be rated AA/CreditWatch Negative by Standard & Poor’s and Aa2 by Moody’s. The rating on the Class B subordinated notes is aligned to the rating of the mortgage insurers for the loans, Genworth Financial Mortgage Insurance and PMI Mortgage Insurance. The face value of the Class B subordinated notes is $A35 million, representing 10.0 per cent subordination, will have a weighted average life of approximately 2.4 years and carry a margin of 1.20 per cent (120 basis points) over 1-month BBSW. Société Générale, Deutsche Bank and Macquarie Bank were the joint lead managers and book runners for the issue. The issue will settle on 1 November, 2007.

Macquarie Bank Group Head of Banking and Securitisation Mr Tony Gill, said: "We are extremely pleased with the outcome of this transaction. This PUMA bond issue is the first RMBS consisting entirely of stated income loans to be issued since late July. We received strong support from domestic and offshore investors underlining the strength of the Australian RMBS market despite disruptions in global financial markets. A total of 10 investors participated in the issue with approximately 56 per cent of the orders by dollar value from investors in Australia and 44 per cent from Asia."

Mr Gill added: "The PUMA S-5 bond issue is collateralised by a pool of mortgage loans with a weighted average current loan-to-value ratio of 59 per cent and a weighted average seasoning of 21 months. The maximum loan-to-value ratio of loans in the pool is 78 per cent. The pool consists entirely of stated income loans made only to prime borrowers who are self-employed. All of our loans have the benefit of mortgage insurance covering 100 per cent of principal and interest on the loans, provided by either Genworth Financial Mortgage Insurance or PMI Mortgage Insurance."

About Macquarie Securitisation Limited

As manager of the PUMA Programme, Macquarie Securitisation Limited is a leading Australian issuer of residential mortgage-backed securities. It has raised a total of $A37.2 billion in 39 separate issues since 1993, involving 28 public issues in Australia, five public issues in the European markets and six global issues.

Macquarie Securitisation previously announced on 20 September that it successfully priced the $A500 million PUMA Masterfund P-13 bond issue. That issue was the first Australian RMBS transaction to be successfully priced since late July 2007.

Contacts:

Paula Hannaford
Corporate Communications
Macquarie Bank
Tel: (61 2) 8232 4102
Mobile: (+61 4) 1394 0180
Email: paula.hannaford@macquarie.com

Macquarie Securitisation issuance under the PUMA Programme (pdf 55 KB)