LendInvest completes second securitisation amid unprecedented market turbulence

By Bridging Loan Directory 20th March 2020

LendInvest, the UK’s leading platform for property finance, has completed its second securitisation of Buy-to-Let (BTL) mortgages in an oversubscribed RMBS transaction, Mortimer BTL 2020-1.

Despite significant market turbulence from the global spread of the Coronavirus, it took LendInvest six business days to price the transaction after opening investor discussions.

The securitisation, which comprised £285 million of UK prime BTL mortgage loans, received an AAA(sf) rating (for 85% of the pool) from Fitch and S&P Global Ratings, the global credit rating agencies. The senior tranche was priced at 1.07% over SONIA*; this is 23bps better than LendInvest’s securitisation last year.

Rod Lockhart, pictured, Chief Executive of LendInvest, commented:

“When we launched the roadshow for this transaction, no-one could have predicted the full extent of the turmoil that was about to unfold. It has been a truly unprecedented and unusual environment to agree and settle a transaction as substantial as this for LendInvest – let alone the whole UK mortgage market. The circumstances mean it’s all the more rewarding to have returned to the RMBS market as emphatically as we have done with this transaction.

Our much-improved pricing and the appetite for this transaction from both existing and new investors have proven our liquidity, our funding model and the resilience of our wider business strategy to withstand market uncertainty. This transaction ensures our levels of BTL lending needn’t dip over the coming months as the world works through this most unusual time.”

LendInvest remains the only UK Fintech platform to have securitised its own assets. This transaction comes only nine months after LendInvest entered the RMBS market with its first securitisation of £259 million BTL loans, Mortimer BTL 2019-1.

Leveraging its end-to-end technology platform, LendInvest provides BTL borrowers and intermediaries with a superior customer experience. LendInvest remains one of few mortgage lenders to use Open Banking, a time-saving, tech-enabled service to which over two thirds of its BTL customers subscribe; and the company is typically able to make an BTL mortgage offer faster than its offline competition.

LendInvest has lent more than £3 billion of property finance to UK borrowers since 2008.

Citi acted as Sole Arranger. Citi, National Australia Bank and JP Morgan acted as Joint Lead Managers.