9/1/2026
We thought summer would end early last week, and that has proven to be true as four deals began marketing while SocGen’s Red & Black
Auto Italy 4 was priced.
With Monday being a bank holiday in the UK, we should now expect the market to reopen in earnest. Volkswagen certainly seem to be in a
hurry with their IPTs coming just after 8am this morning for their latest German Auto ABS, VCL 49.
As is becoming tradition, the early September activity is being dominated by auto paper with RCI Banque’s Cars Alliance and a German Red & Black from SocGen to complement the Italian version already priced. There’s another big hitter on the market with Lloyds Bank’s Dutch Prime RMBS shelf, Candide Financing, back for the second time this year.
The expectation for all of these is to price by the end of the week. It would also not be a surprise if someone managed to join them in
pricing too. But it’s almost certain that we’ll see a number of issuers hit screens with a view to pricing next week. Do not be surprised if there’s over 5 deals in the pipeline come Friday.
SocGen (via two wholly-owned subsidiaries) took the unusual step last week of having two Red & Black Auto ABS deals in the market at
the same time. Indeed, they began marketing Red & Black Italy on the week beginning August 17th.
That is very, very early to reopen the market but clearly the plan paid off. The extended run time gave any investors on annual leave
enough time to pop in and check, while getting so far in front of the rest of the market meant they have probably priced in the quietest week until November.
Momentum built quickly and despite significant tightening across the stack, coverage at one point read an astonishing 3.5x, 8.1x, 10.0x,
and 9.8x, on classes A-D. In the end, €487.6m was placed with investors and SocGen walked away with the best Italian Auto prints since 2018.
After a two-year primary market hiatus for the originator's Italian collateral, SocGen's well established Red & Black auto ABS programme has returned with an Italian loan pool via its wholly-owned subsidiary Fiditalia. With no fully offered trades in euros or sterling for over a month, Red & Black Italy was looking to get ahead of the traditional September rush and lay down an early gauntlet for the market – the deal bolstered by partial retention of the Class A tranche...click here to read the full overview on Concept ABS.
After a remarkable run in euro-denominated ABS into the summer break, which saw over €64bn placed with investors (and just shy of €18bn coming from Autos, well on course for yet another post GFC record for the year), the market took a well-deserved breather in August. But with a hectic post-summer period expected, which should also be dominated by Autos (the pipeline containing two more auto deals, a debut from Cars Alliance in Spanish product and another Red & Black from the German stable), SocGen sought to get out in front early to reopen the market with their Red & Black Italy on 17-Aug.
With many still enjoying their summer holidays, it was inevitable that investors would need a bit more time to consider the transaction, but the hope would have been that SocGen gets a free swing before things start to ramp up. Indeed, it's the first Auto trade since Bumper FR by Ayvens priced on 9-Jul, while no offered trade of any kind in euros or sterling has been seen since Aira Force on 23-Jul...click here to read the full Market Context on Concept ABS.
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