RBS launches Antares CMBS

Royal Bank of Scotland is marketing a securitisation of a loan it made to refinance Kennedy Wilson’s Jupiter portfolio of offices, retail and leisure throughout the UK.

The £180m transaction is called Antares 2015-1 and has two classes of floating-rate notes: a £130.65m A class; and a £40.71m B class, rated by DBRS and Fitch Ratings.

RBS underwrote the refinancing in September 2014 following Kennedy Wilson’s purchase of the Jupiter portfolio out of receivership in June, for £296m. The property company had already acquired the B loan notes relating to the debt of the previous owner, which sat underneath the distressed Fordgate Commercial Securities 1 CMBS loan.

The portfolio was previously owned by Moises and Mendi Gertner’s Fordgate and the B note and the assets were sold by special servicer, Mount Street.

The underlying18 assets (three have been sold post-acquisition) are of secondary and tertiary quality. According to Fitch Ratings, 44% of the collateral consists of Aberdeen offices for firms working in North Sea oil and gas.

Given concentration by industry, geography and tenant, a modified pro-rata principal pay-down structure, more relaxed counterparty replacement triggers and a cash-trapping mechanism instead of a liquidity facility, Fitch has assigned an expected rating cap in the ‘Asf’ category.

The CMBS is the fourth to be launched in Europe this year. Last month, Deutsche Bank issued the first CMBS backed by Irish assets since 2006 – the £175m DECO 2015 Harp deal which also included a loan to Kennedy Wilson among the three loans securitised.

There have also been two new CMBS deals in 2015 secured on Italian assets.