Westlake Financial Services issued its largest asset-backed securitization (ABS) of $1 billion (WLAKE 2018-1) backed by approximately $1.1 billion of automotive loans. This is Westlake’s largest securitization ever issued with an expected annualized coupon of 3.28%.

“Westlake’s past securitizations continue to perform and the company is growing profitably, promoting investor loyalty and sparking interest from new investors,” said Sean Morgan, vice president of Finance for Westlake. “With a weighted average credit spread 1.12%, we were on average over 30 bps tighter than our last deal for comparable tranches.”

The transaction was led by JP Morgan (structurer), Wells Fargo and Bank of Montreal. Westlake’s previous securitization (WLAKE 2017-2) was $800 million. This is the company’s first transaction to offer a single-B rated Class F tranche, which added an additional $57 million and brought Westlake’s advance rate to 97%.

“Our focus in 2018 is to continue to gain market share across the credit spectrum,” said Paul Kerwin, Westlake’s chief financial officer. “The liquidity cushion provided by our ABS investors has enabled us to expand our financing options to near prime and prime credit customers in recent years. Based on our growth trends we expect to be back in the market in Q2 of 2018.”

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.