Kabbage, a pioneering financial services, technology and data platform, today announced that on March 7, 2017, it priced $525 million of fixed-rate, asset-backed notes in a private securitization transaction.
The facility is expandable to $1.5 billion. The notes will be issued in four classes by Kabbage Asset Securitization LLC, a newly formed, wholly owned subsidiary of Kabbage Inc. The senior class of notes is anticipated to be rated “A(sf)” on the closing date by Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA). Guggenheim Securities is serving as sole structuring advisor and initial purchaser of the notes. The securitization is expected to close on or about March 20, 2017, and is subject to customary closing conditions.
The securitization was significantly oversubscribed with interest from top-tier institutional investors. This represents the largest asset-backed securitization of small business loans in the online lending industry, next to Kabbage’s prior, expandable, ABS note issuance in March 2014. This new facility will enable Kabbage to continue to broaden its product mix by offering larger credit lines and longer term loans.
“In a time when the FinTech industry has experienced challenges, our automated technology and data platform has demonstrated to investors Kabbage’s ability to deliver superior and predictable performance on small business loans as an asset class,” said Kevin Phillips, Head of Corporate Development for Kabbage. “Both the overwhelming investment interest and the anticipated strength of our bond rating are testaments to our proven approach to underwriting and managing small business loan performance through the Kabbage Platform.”
In March 2014, Kabbage was the first technology-enabled, financial services company to issue asset-backed notes secured by small business loans. This transaction was initially $270 million and was subsequently expanded to $545 million by the issuance of additional notes to multiple capital markets investors. This facility enabled Kabbage to dramatically scale its volume to extend over $2.7 billion through the platform.
The anticipated KBRA rating of “A(sf)” reflects an upgrade from the rating on Kabbage’s prior securitization. “Kabbage’s strong historical performance over the last three years played a key part in KBRA’s upgrade,” said Anthony Nocera, Managing Director at KBRA. “The upgrade is based on several structural improvements and the existence of more historical performance data relating to Kabbage’s collateral.”