The transaction was fully subscribed as demand was high and price tightened from early indications. Residential Mortgage Securities 18 plc (RMS 18) was priced on 28 June 2004.
- The £700 million transaction is the second Kensington securitisation in 2004. Pricing continued the improving trend seen with RMS 17 in February, with all tranches having tightened from those levels.
- For the first time, RMS 18 included a sterling tranche of Bonds targeted at money market investors; historically this was dominated by US dollar investors.
- Kensington has now securitised approximately £6.9 billion of residential mortgages since the start of its programme in 1996. RMS 18 is the twentieth transaction from Kensington, including two supplementary (tap) issues.
- Bonds from the first 12 RMS transactions have been upgraded. This demonstrates the quality of the mortgages written by Kensington.
Simon Kingdon, Group Finance Director said, “We are delighted to announce our latest securitisation transaction, RMS 18. Market demand for Kensington’s securitisations has continued to strengthen. The RMS 18 pricing has resulted in a significant reduction in our cost of funds. Morgan Stanley and The Royal Bank of Scotland, joint lead managers, continued to broaden and deepen the global investor base and have achieved excellent result.”
