Amicus completes £100m mortgage-backed securitisation

Amicus believes that the transaction is the first securitisation in the UK market made up entirely of short term property loans, providing investors with attractive risk-adjusted returns through exposure to predominantly first-lien UK property loans.

Amicus’ first UK MBS is a regulated non-rated entity with a scheduled maturity  of July 2018, comprising a portfolio of quality short term loans with a weighted average loan to value of 60%; the term of the loans ranges from 6-18 months.

John Jenkins, CEO of Amicus, commented:

“This is a first for Amicus and we believe a first for the UK market. We are very excited to have launched and completed this new transaction. We are in a strong position to offer attractive risk adjusted returns driven by the quality of our loan portfolios and our track record in underwriting and risk management.

“The UK mortgage market is seeing a sustained and growing appetite for short-term property finance driven by the tightening of mainstream bank underwriting requirements; recent changes to planning laws; and the inability of some lenders to act sufficiently quickly to respond to demand.

“There is clear investor demand for this type of short-term mortgage-backed security. Many institutions are increasing their focus on the alternative finance sector as a means of enabling enhanced returns without taking on large risks. Given the continued appetite for short term property finance, we anticipate significant growth in demand for short term syndication of this class of debt through bond issuance.”

“Our intention is to use this successful fund raising to drive our growth ambitions in the short-term lending market which as a whole has grown to an estimated volume of almost £3bn annually, according to industry data.”