The worries are already impacting on firms looking for a buyer, with the Kensington Group receiving third-party interest but no concrete offers since it put itself on the market, and London & Scottish Bank’s buyout by Cattles plc falling through at the last minute, after the firm concluded that the deal was not in the best interests of its shareholders.
Commenting on the marketplace, Mark Sismey-Durrant, chief executive of Heritable Bank, said: “It looks like the non-conforming market in the US is in freefall and this has bearings on the UK and lenders who were looking for US interest. The UK market is more resilient but you can see in the eyes of potential investors if arrears were to go up because of interest rates, this might have an impact on securitisation performances.”
Bob Sturges, director of communications at Money Partners, believed there had been some dampening of interest among some players.
“The UK market has three differences from the United States’ market – property prices are not going to fall, the economy is stronger and the specialist market is less saturated than in the US. However, the US conditions are bound to have an effect and dampen the interests of people going into it but I think investment banks are still looking to acquire the right deal.”
Paul Hunt, head of marketing at Platform, said he had not seen any impact yet on securitisations.
He explained: “We have seen no downturn in interest from the US in the securitisation market but you have to keep an eye on what’s going on over there as there is a lot of caution in the US at the moment.”
