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SYDNEY, Jan 11 (Reuters) - RAMS Home Loans Group Ltd
(RHG.AX), Australia's first high profile victim of the subprime
mortgage crisis, plans to sell privately A$750 million ($670
million) of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS),
ratings agency Standard and Poor's said on Friday.
RAMS has been trying to refinance its debt after it failed
to roll over A$6.17 billion of paper in August, when credit
markets suddenly dried up and cut off its main funding source.
It securitised a modest A$300 million of homeloans in
October, amid the worst credit crisis of the decade, with
NabCapital and Royal Bank of Scotland as joint leads.
RAMS sold part of its business to Australia's Westpac
Banking Corp (WBC.AX) for A$140 million in October.
The new offer, called RMS Trust Series UniCredit(1), is
backed by prime homeloans originated by a RAMS unit, S&P said.
Italy's top bank UniCredit (CRDI.MI) is associated with the
offer, according to a market source.
RAMS declined to comment.
The notes have a legal final maturity of Jan. 9, 2039,
according to S&P.
The pool includes loans with an average loan-to-value ratio
of 69 percent. The loans have an average time since issue, or
seasoning, of 29 months. More than half -- 55 percent -- are
low documentation loans and interest-only loans comprise 30
percent of the pool, S&P said.
Genworth Financial Mortgage Insurance Pty Ltd, PMI Mortgage
Insurance Ltd, Prime Insurance Group Ltd insure the pool.
The deal details are as follows, according to S&P:
CLASS AMOUNT RATINGS
(mln) S&P
A A$732.5 AAA
B A$17.5 AA
($1=A$1.12)
(Reporting by Cecile Lefort)
