Prospa prices 1st ABS

The ABS was issued to wholesale investors and supported by a pool of Australian small-business loans and line of credit facilities.

According to Prospa, the PROSPArous Trust 2021-1 is the first of its kind in Australia and was oversubscribed, leading to a day one weighted average margin of 234 bps above one-month bank bill swap rate.

The ABS included large local and international investors and required scaling back of orders to achieve the $200 million maximum issuance, Prospa said.

The transaction is expected to settle on 15 September, subject to the satisfaction of customary conditions precedent.

National Australia Bank (NAB) acted as arranger and lead manager of the transaction.

Commenting on the transaction, Prospa chief financial officer Ross Aucutt said: “We are pleased with the strong demand and pricing of this transaction, which aims to establish an efficient funding structure to enable growth.

“We are grateful for the diverse support we received from local and offshore investors in our inaugural ABS transaction, and we look forward to becoming a regular issuer in the future.”

He added that Prospa is aiming to scale existing products, create new solutions, and accelerate growth.

The SME lender also provided a trading update for the first two months of the 2022 financial year, reporting originations of $44.9 million in August 2021, up from $21.9 million – or 105 per cent – in August 2020, and $41.8 million in July 2021.

According to figures provided to The Adviser, around 75 per cent of Prospa’s business was originated through partners (including the broker channel) during August.

Speaking to The Adviser, Beau Bertoli, co-founder and chief revenue officer at Prospa, said: “Small businesses owners have been an inspiration over the last couple of months, displaying their earnest focus on business stability, resilience and recovery.

“We are proud of the support we’ve provided, which has been possible due to our partners who play a significant role championing the needs of small businesses.”

Prospa recently released its FY21 results, in which it revealed that brokers contributed to an 8 per cent increase in originations to $483.7 million.

[Related: Prospa boosted by business sentiment rise]