Global vendor finance company DLL announced the closing of its DLL UK Equipment Finance 2019-1 Equipment Lease securitization transaction in the United Kingdom of nearly $400 million. It is the first public ABS transaction issued by DLL in Europe and the first UK ABS transaction with equipment lease exposure in five years. The transaction will be listed at the ISE (Irish Stock Exchange).

The UK transaction follows three successful DLL securitizations in the U.S., the most recent topping $1 billion and occurring in November 2018.

The notes are backed by a pool of UK equipment lease receivables originated by DLL’s UK branch De Lage Landen Leasing Ltd. The pool consists of hire purchase agreements, operational leases and financial leases, mainly in the Agriculture and Materials Handling sectors. The transaction includes Class A floating rate notes of $398.6 million rated AAA by both Fitch and Standard&Poor’s.

“We are very pleased with the huge interest shown in our notes. Interest was such that the final book finished at an impressive 755 million pounds (nearly $977 million); an oversubscription of 2.5 times, to mark a successful debut for DLL in this asset class in Sterling ABS. Also, the fact that no less than 15 individual investors participate, shows the wide acceptance of our transaction. We consider this an endorsement of investors and rating agencies of the best in class standards that we aimed to follow with this transaction“, said Marc Dierckx, DLL Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Board. “Our securitization transactions continue to be a part of DLL’s long-term growth strategy to diversify our funding base. Going forward, we intend to pursue further transactions and will look at other opportunities to complement our primary and major source of funding, which remains our parent, Rabobank.”