Westlake Financial Completes Largest Ever ABS at $800MM



Westlake Financial Services issued an $800 million asset-backed securitization (WLAKE 2017-2) backed by approximately $860 million of automotive loans.

The transaction was led by Wells Fargo Securities as structurer, Credit Suisse and SMBC Nikko. It is the latest of Westlake’s 14 securitizations, which have been comprised of approximately $5.86 billion in cumulative note sales.

“This ABS trumps the most recent securitization completed back in March 2017, which was at the time, our largest ABS ever issued of $700 million,” stated Paul Kerwin, Westlake’s chief financial officer. “Our credit performance remains strong in spite of competitive and economic pressures, which attracts investors to our portfolio and enables us to continually increase our securitization amount.”

Westlake’s largest-ever securitization has an expected annualized cost of 2.65% including the initial purchaser’s fees, which is in-line with prior ABS deals, despite higher benchmark interest rates.

“Westlake’s ABS continue to perform and investors keep supporting our portfolio,” added Sean Morgan, AVP of Finance – Westlake Financial. “We increased our deal by $100 million with 37 investors on WLAKE 2017-2, which is a reflection of continuous investor demand for Westlake’s ABS.”

Westlake maintains six borrowing facilities funded by 10 banks with combined capacity of $1.48 billion to support continued growth in its full-spectrum lending platform.

Southern California-based Westlake is an internet-based, privately held finance company that specializes in the acquisition and servicing of prime to sub-prime automotive retail installment contracts.


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