JPMorgan $5 Billion Deal Sold At 1-Mo Libor + 155 Basis Points - Source
05 Maggio 2009 - 12:22AM
Dow Jones News
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) has sold its $5 billion
credit-card loan-backed deal, according to a person familiar with
the matter.
The bond, eligible for funding under the Federal Reserve's Term
Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, sold at 155 basis
points over the one-month London interbank offered rate, or
Libor.
The self-led deal is the largest so far of TALF-eligible
deals.
Nearly $10 billion in TALF-eligible deals emerged ahead of
Tuesday's loan-application deadline.
TALF-eligible issuance stood at $8.2 billion in March and just
$2.57 billion in April.
TALF is one of the Fed's cornerstone programs aimed at
jump-starting consumer lending. Investors apply for loans to
finance bonds backed by credit cards, student loans, and other
consumer loans once a month. Issuers have clustered bond sales
around the loan-application deadline, which is the first Tuesday of
the month.
JPMorgan didn't return phone calls seeking comment.
Five other deals, including General Electric Co.'s (GE) $1
billion credit-card-backed deal, are due to be sold Tuesday, the
deadline for the Fed's non-recourse loans under TALF.
CNH Global NV (CNH), the agricultural and construction equipment
unit of Fiat SpA (FIATY), increased the size of its offering to $1
billion on Monday from an original $780.6 million. Honda Motor Co.
(HMC) has a $1.25 billion bond, Volkswagen AG (VLKAY) has a $1
billion issue and motorcycle company Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG) has
a $500 million deal.
In its inaugural round, the Fed received applications for only
$4.7 billion of loans to finance investor purchases of
TALF-eligible bonds. That number plummeted to $1.7 billion in
April.
Investors complained about onerous documentation, the
possibility of congressional meddling if they made significant
profits using the Fed's loans and curbs on hiring foreign
nationals.
Even though the central bank has been fine-tuning the program,
several large companies have "mothballed plans to participate"
because they still aren't fully comfortable with the program, said
David Morton, a partner at Rocaton Investment Advisors in Norwalk,
Conn., with $200 billion in assets under advisement. "They fear a
public spotlight if they make money off the program."
That said, market participants expect issuance to pick up even
more before the June loan-application deadline as investors decide
the gains to be made through the program are too large to
ignore.
-By Anusha Shrivastava, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2371;
anusha.shrivastava@dowjones.com