Bank of Queensland has yesterday finalized the pricing on it’s $1.6 billion of mortgage-backed securities sold through the Series 2010-2 REDS. The amount is twice that sought when the bank began marketing the issue earlier last week and is the second largest in Australian history following Westpac’s $2bn issue last December, attracted 14 investors, including the Australian government and ‘a couple of Singapore-based investors’, according to a bank spokesperson.
The securities are backed by fully verified loans and are fully insured by Genworth and QBE. The loans had a weighted average loan-to-value ratio of 56%, and an average period since the loans have been issued of 22 months. The pool was to include 23% interest only loans.
Part of the notes will be listed on the Australian stock exchange and are repo-eligible with the Reserve Bank of Australia. Legal final maturity is in May 2041 with settlement scheduled for 27 August. The borrower can call the notes when less than 10% of the initial notes remain outstanding.