WestLB Arranges First Asset Backed Transaction for Kazakh Bank
WestLB AG, Düsseldorf/Münster, has arranged an asset backed transaction based on payment flows for the Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan. The first tranche of US$ 100 million has already been disbursed under the Payment Rights Securitisation Programme. A single-purpose company set up specifically for this transaction acquired the current and future payment claims of Halyk Savings Bank against 21 correspondent banks in Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The claims consist inter alia of cheque and export payments (e.g. letters of credit). The financing, which has a term of five years, has been rated Baa2 by Moody´s, i.e. one rank higher than the current country rating for the Republic of Kazakhstan. A volume of US$ 85 million will be placed with investors in the syndication process which is now under way.
Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan, the third-largest bank in Kazakhstan, was founded 80 years ago as a branch office of Sberbank, the savings bank of the former Soviet Union. Now privatised, Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan has a network of 582 branches throughout the Republic of Kazakhstan and representative offices in London, Peking and Moscow.
The transaction is a major success for WestLB in that it is the first-ever asset backed transaction to be concluded in Central Asia and the former CIS, a region offering considerable potential for such collateralised transactions.