Deal of the week - Deutsche Bank/Selec

Deutsche Bank is one of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's biggest securitisation clients. It advised the bank on arranging this first whole-business securitisation to be carried out in Europe through a French special purpose vehicle (SPV) - similar deals have been done in Europe using offshore SPVs. The assets were a portfolio of property owned by Selec, but used to house Electricité de France (EDF) staff. Selec borrowed under a loan with recourse to the assets used by EDF. A French SPV acquired the assets and issued three classes of notes. Class A were issued for euro638.6m (£387.36m). Class B were issued for euro33.6m (£20.38m) and Class C were issued for euro18.6m (£11.28m).
French bankruptcy law is debtor friendly and it is difficult to appease the rating agencies, but the class A notes were rated AAA, AAA and AA+, Class B notes were rated A+, A and A, and Class C notes were rated BAA, BBB and BBB by Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor's respectively.
Freshfields advised both Deutsche Bank and Selec as the bank is part of a consortium that indirectly owns Selec.