This is the second residential mortgage securitisation which Mortgages plc Group has done, and it has brought together the original team from last year – Clifford Chance representing the lead manager Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Linklaters representing the issuer.

On this deal, lead partner Paul Severs at Clifford Chance was running the transaction from Tokyo after the firm sent him out there to tap the burgeoning property securitisation market. He scooped the pair of deals through a long-standing relationship with David Merchant at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and had also worked for Mortgages plc Group in the past.

This deal was completed on a short timescale, stretching to just six weeks from start to finish. The deal was a standard eurobond mortgage securitisation, valued at £226m, and was not filed into the US market.

Severs will continue to practise in the London mortgage securitisation market from his new base in Tokyo, where he is believed to be the first dedicated magic circle property finance partner on the ground.