Lloyds unit to sell A$598 million auto-loan backed debt

Pricing is expected by Friday with settlement on July 23.

The issue, called Bella Trust Series 2010-1, is jointly led by Bank of Scotland, JPMorgan and National Australia Bank, the joint lead said. JPMorgan and NAB are joint book runners.

The offer will consist of six tranches backed by car-loans originated by Capital Finance, an Australian unit of Lloyds.

Only the top-rated tranche will be sold to investors with the balance retained by the issuer.

Bank of Scotland's offer would be its second issue backed by auto-loans.

The loan pool is exclusively made up of motor vehicle loans, predominantly cars.

The loans have a seasoning, or time since issued, of 15 months.

Final maturity of the offer is February 2017 while the expected maturity is in February 2014.

Asset-backed bond issuance in Australia, including mortgage-backed notes, has been hit hard in the wake of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, but the market is slowing coming back to life.

This is the fifth offer backed by Australian auto-loans this year. It follows Macquarie Bank which sold on Friday US$500 million of debt backed by car loans in the United States.

Moody's sees a revival of the asset class with a return of investor interest due to strong historical performance of Australian asset-backed securities and a reduced uncertainty in Australia's economy, it said in a note last week.

Deal details are as follows:

Class AMOUNT AVERAGE LIFE RATINGS

(mln) (years) S&P/Moody's

A-2 A$500 1.5 AAA/Aaa

B A$72 2.6 A/Aa3

C A$14 3.6 BBB/Baa1

D A$4 3.6 BB/Baa2

E A$8 3.6 B/Ba1

Seller A$14.1 3.6 unrated

(Reporting by Cecile Lefort; Editing by Ed Davies)

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