Winter has well and truly arrived now but Enpal’s second visit to the European ABS market in as many years has provided us with some much needed light.

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Although, with no deals currently in the pipeline, it seems we could be looking at a final flicker rather than the spark for a late surge.

Enpal are in many ways the cult heroes of European ABS at the moment, with their status as the only truly “green” issuer in the market of the past couple of years. And fittingly, their debut Solar ABS trade in October2024 was met with rapturous demand.

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As a result, it would’ve been unwise to deem a similar outcome this time around as impossible, even with the holidays so close. But despite their status, Enpal’s €303m Golden Ray 2 did not have things all its own way.

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In part, that’s because this was more than just round two after a successful debut. The deal was marketed as a consumer ABS backed by a portfolio of residential solar loans and heat pump loans, which made up 25.8% of the pool. It’s an achievement to get investors comfortable with one new asset class, let alone two.

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The timing of this trade is also worth noting. Golden Ray 1 was priced on October 31^st, 2024. This time around, after a stunning €53bn of issuance in the second half of 2025, investors could be short of cash to burn, regardless of how much they love the rarity value on offer with a green asset trade.

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Finally, Golden Ray 2 did not have any help from the European Investment Fund (EIF) to rely on this time around. Last year, there was a €50m AAA-rated, A1 tranche guaranteed by the EIF. This year, there is only a single senior tranche, rated at Aa3 by Moody’s.

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The leads wisely leaned into caution: IPTs opened at 1mE +95-100bpsfor the seniors, stepping down through low-100s, mid-high 100s, and 300a for the mezz stack. Coverage was strong on the smaller B and C tranches, but the seniors were more of a challenge. They were only 1.1 times covered, but the rest of the stack had built steady momentum.

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Ultimately, tightening 1bps from IPTs to land at 94bps over1-month Euribor on a more complicated and larger trade, just as the market is closing for the year, is the mark of an issuer getting through a tiring market with relative ease.

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And with no more training wheels from the EIF, Enpal is cementing its place as a favourite of the ABS market.

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As for this week and beyond, well, I regret to inform you that we could be in for a quiet time. No deals in the pipeline, and surely hitting screens without at least some pre-placement now would be unwise.

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I expect we’ll be looking at January for the next fully marketed trade.

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Final Word

That’s all from me this week. I leave you with a story about the most disappointing 12 hours of my sporting life since I choked in that golf final.

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Saturday morning, I awoke at 5am in the hope that Ben Stokes’ England cricket team had crash, bang, walloped their way to making a fist of things in the second Ashes test v Australia.

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By 6am, it was becoming clear that they had not. No bother, for I was travelling to London to play a 4-ball better ball golf match against a 16 handicapper and a 26 handicapper. Regardless of the shots my partner and I were giving up, surely we’d be through to the next round.

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Alas, it was not to be as the 26 handicapper, who is legitimately terrible at golf, is also a legitimately fantastic putter. He made two birdies on par 3s, one for a net-hole-in-one as we lost on the last hole.

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No bother, I said again. Arsenal v Aston Villa has just begun. I can watch the Gunners extend their lead at the top of the table right? But alas, with the last kick of the game, they too were defeated.

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I arrived home at 5pm exhausted and with a faint sense that I had completely wasted my Saturday… Although on Sunday, I managed to put up a 2m wide (and very heavy) mirror by using a drill for the first time in my life.

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Hope your weekend was better than that.

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And if not, I hope this week improves!

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Tom

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