Baker & McKenzie Advises Volkswagen on Two High Volume ABS Transactions
Deal Announcement
6 December 2011
VW Financings in UK and Germany valued at approximately EUR2.3 billion in total
Frankfurt / Main, Germany, December 6, 2011 – Baker & McKenzie advised Volkswagen Financial Services AG and Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) Limited (VWFS) on setting up an ABS program under the Driver platform. Registered notes and Schuldschein loans with an aggregate principal amount of GBP1.2 billion secured by auto loan receivables and originated by Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) Limited were issued by Luxembourg-based Driver UK Master S.A., acting with respect to its Compartment 1.
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Lloyds and the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi were the banks involved in the financing of the transaction. The program structure follows the already existing "Master" programs (VCL Master (Germany) and DFM Master (Netherlands). The financing instrument provides flexible funding of an alternating volume of receivables.
“The Driver UK Master transaction is another milestone to establish a standardized securitization platform for Volkswagen across different jurisdictions. Investors appreciate the fact that the documentation and transaction features remain similar and they can focus primarily on analyzing the underlying assets of each transaction,” commented Dietmar Helms.
In addition, Baker & McKenzie advised Volkswagen Bank GmbH (VW Bank) as transaction counsel in a public loan receivables ABS transaction under the Driver platform in Germany. Under the transaction, financing notes with an aggregate principal amount of EUR952.5 million secured by auto loan receivables and originated by VW Bank were issued by Private Driver 2011-3 GmbH. WestLB was assigned as sole lead manager with the placement of these notes.
The Securities team at Baker & McKenzie has advised in a large number of national and international ABS transactions, particularly in the automotive industry. VW Bank, VW Leasing, Porsche AG, Mercedes Bank, BMW Leasing and MAN Finance International are all returning clients.
Legal advisor VW Bank:
Baker & McKenzie
Lead: Banking & Finance: Dr. Dietmar Helms (Partner, Frankfurt)
Team:
Banking & Finance: Johannes Rothmund (Counsel, Frankfurt), Vincent Keaveny (Partner, London), Mariana Capucho Pereira (Associate, London), Laurent Fessmann (Partner, Luxembourg), Basile Femelat (Associate, Luxembourg), Yolanda Escamez ( Associate, Luxembourg)
Tax: Nicole Looks (Partner, Frankfurt), Tino Duttiné (Partner, Frankfurt) and Jochen Meyer-Burow, LL.M (Partner Frankfurt), James Wilson (Associate, London)