Matheson recently acted as Irish legal and tax counsel, and Irish listing agent, to an Irish securitisation vehicle in connection with the £250,000,000 Small Business Origination Loan Trust 2019-3 DAC (“SBOLT”) securitisation of approximately 3,000 UK SME loans that were originated through Funding Circle in the UK. Investors include individuals, banks, asset management companies, insurance companies, government-backed entities and funds. The notes issued by SBOLT were listed on the Main Securities Market of Euronext Dublin.
The transaction is intended to qualify as a simple, transparent and standardised (“STS”) securitisation within the meaning of Article 18 of the Securitisation Regulation, which may benefit from lower capital requirements for institutional investors.
The transaction represents Funding Circle’s fifth successful securitisation of UK SME loans to date following their (and Europe’s) first platform Bank Lending securitisation in 2016 (in respect of which Matheson also acted as Irish legal and tax counsel, and Irish listing agent). It is the first securitisation of SME loans originated by Funding Circle, in which Funding Circle acted as one of the risk retention holders (along with Glencar XI Designated Activity Company), and is also Funding Circle’s first STS labelled securitisation under the Securitisation Regulation which came into effect on 1 January 2019.
Alan Keating, Partner in Matheson’s Finance and Capital Markets Department, led the Matheson team advising on the transaction assisted by Finance and Capital Markets partner, Turlough Galvin, Tax partner, Kevin Smith, Finance and Capital Markets senior associate Micheál Buckley.