Sallie Mae priced its $1.2 billion securitization, SLM 2013-1 at tighter levels than Nelnet's $438 million Student Loan Trust 2013-1 deal, which priced at the end of January.
SLM 2013-1, 6.8-year, ‘AAA’ rated, class A3 notes priced at 55 basis points; and the 8.6-year, ‘A1’ rated, B tranche, priced at 180 basis points. Nelnet’s Student Loan Trust 2013-1 priced its 6.5-year senior tranche priced at 60 basis points. The 15-year subordinate tranche priced at 280bp.
The capital structure includes two additional class-A, 'AAA'/'Aaa' rated notes rated by Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service. The one-year, class A1 notes priced at 15 basis points over the one month Libor; the three-year, class A2 notes priced at 25 basis points; the 7-year, class A3 notes priced at 55 basis points.
The trust collateral is backed by Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFLEP) loans with guaranties provided by eligible guarantors and reinsurance provided by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) for at least 97% of principal and accrued interest, according to Fitch presale report.
Sallie Mae said in January that it would continue to issue FFLEP ABS to finance the redemption of all legacy FFELP loans previously sold into the U.S. Department of Education’s Straight-A conduit program. The student loan lender said it expects to redeem all of these loans prior to the conduit program’s Jan. 19, 2014 maturity date. At Dec. 31, 2012, the company held $125.6 billion of FFELP loans.
