OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has affirmed Albion Capital Corporation S.A.'s (Albion) asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) Short-term Rating at 'F1sf' following a review of the programme.

Albion's CP is fully supported by The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU, A/Stable/F1), which acts as the programme's sponsor and main liquidity provider. BTMU's commitment under the programme liquidity agreement ensures the full and timely repayment of all maturing CP notes if Albion has insufficient funds on any CP maturity date. The CP rating is therefore linked to BTMU's Short-term rating of 'F1'.

The affirmation follows a discussion with BTMU's management and takes into consideration the conduit's performance, CP issuance and portfolio composition over the past 12 months.

The total portfolio consists of 20 transactions, up from 15 at the time of the previous annual review. The portfolio predominantly comprises auto finance receivables and trade receivables at 62% and 23%, respectively, which is largely unchanged from last year. The geographic distribution of the portfolio has also remained unchanged, with the UK accounting for half of the portfolio, followed by Germany at 26%.

Albion is a fully supported, multi-seller ABCP programme structured to issue US and euro CP in various currencies to fund the purchase of diverse asset types up to a maximum programme limit of USD10bn. Albion re-started issuing CP following the restructuring in 2013, which added a US co-issuer to enhance Albion's USCP issuance capacity and increased the programme size to USD10bn from USD2bn. The programme currently has USD3.0bn of CP outstanding, up from USD2.7bn at the time of the previous review.