Stonebriar Commercial Finance announced it has closed its fifth commercial equipment asset-backed securitization (ABS), SCFET 2019-1, a $650 million ABS issuance with top tranches rated triple A.

SCFET 2019-1 is secured by a portfolio of commercial equipment loans and leases across a variety of asset classes including rail, aviation, marine transportation, energy, real estate and manufacturing. The A-1 and A-2 tranches of the transaction received ratings of “Aaa” and “AAA” from Moody’s Investors Service and Kroll Bond Rating Agency, respectively.

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated served as Lead Structuring Agent and Joint Bookrunner. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC served as Co-Structuring Agent and Joint Bookrunner. Stonebriar will continue to service the assets with US Bank as backup servicer.

Dave B. Fate, President and CEO of Stonebriar, stated, "Since June 2016, Stonebriar has executed five equipment securitization transactions totaling over $2.2 billion, attracting significant demand from a diverse group of domestic and international institutional investors. SCFET 2019-1 is our largest and most successful ABS issuance to date, delivering the most cost-effective, long-term financing we have achieved thus far. We continue to expand the SCFET investor base with a mix of repeat and new investors across the capital structure. We now have over 40 institutional investors, 8 of them new to this issuance, including some of the largest global asset managers. SCFET 2019-1 included assets from four of Stonebriar’s current business platforms – General Equipment, Aviation Capital, Rail Leasing, and Real Estate – including a portion of our Canadian portfolio. Continued strong performance, multiple ratings upgrades on our four existing ABS pools and an increasingly diversified collateral pool were key factors in securing our second ABS with triple A ratings and is a testament to Stonebriar’s ability to build and manage a high-quality portfolio.”