Hogan Lovells advises Société Générale, Banco Santander, UniCredit and BofA on CREDIPAR's new public STS securitisation

The transaction, with a volume of €573,330,300, securitised over 29,000 auto lease contracts originated in France for new vehicles of the Stellantis brands (including Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel, Fiat, Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Maserati) and used vehicles also of other brands. This is CREDIPAR’s third public securitisation since the start of the cooperation with Santander Consumer Finance. The pricing of the transaction will allow CREDIPAR to continue to develop offering to its customers for this strong growth product. The transaction supports the electrification roadmap of Stellantis through the inclusion of up to 25% of autolease contracts on full electric vehicles. The deal closed on 26 October 2023.

CREDIPAR is a leading actor in the French domestic vehicle leasing market. CREDIPAR is a 100% French subsidiary of Banque Stellantis France, itself a 50/50 subsidiary of Stellantis Financial Services (one of the captive finance subsidiaries of Stellantis specialised in automotive financing) and Santander Consumer Finance (the division of Banco Santander specialised in consumer finance). CREDIPAR provides financing solutions, through loans or leases to the end customers of Stellantis brands dealers in France as well as funding stocks of dealers.

Société Générale acted as Arranger and Joint Lead Manager and Banco Santander, S.A., UniCredit Bank AG and BofA Securities Europe SA acted as Joint Lead Managers.

The class A/B notes, in an amount of €487,900,000, were issued by the French securitisation fund (fonds commun de titrisation) "Auto ABS French Leases 2023" and were officially listed and admitted to trading on the regulated market of Euronext Paris. The class A/B notes are rated, respectively, AAA(sf) and AA(sf) by S&P Global Ratings Europe Limited and AAA(sf) and AA (high) (sf) by DBRS Ratings GmbH. Auto ABS French Leases 2023 also issued class C notes in an amount of €37,900,000.

The Hogan Lovells team was led by structured finance and securitisation partner Laura Asbati, with key support from associate Julie Toux and paralegal Youri de Pas. The team was also supported by partner Sharon Lewis, senior associate Ailsa Davies and associate Joanna Veitch on the swap aspects. Partner Ludovic Geneston and Maryll Pizzetta handled the tax aspects and senior counsel Dennis Dillon advised on U.S. law aspects.

CREDIPAR was advised by Linklaters.