LONDON, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's today assigned its
AAA/--/A-1+ counterparty credit ratings to White Pine Corp. Ltd. At the same
time, preliminary ratings were assigned to White Pines' U.S. and European
medium-term note programs and its European CP program. A final rating was
assigned to its U.S. CP program (see list below).
"White Pine is a structured investment vehicle (SIV) sponsored by Bank One
N.A.," said Juan-Carlos Martorell, associate director at Standard & Poor's
Structured Finance Ratings group in London. "We have assigned ratings on White
Pine Corp. and its programs based on our assessment of White Pine's structure
and capital adequacy."
Jim Irine, managing director at Bank One N.A.'s SIV group in London,
claims that the launch of White Pine is both a strategic fit and a natural
progression of the bank's asset-backed securities activities.
"The SIV will offer a variety of investment opportunities to Bank One's
clients," he said.
White Pine will issue CP and MTNs directly in the European markets. A
Delaware subsidiary -- White Pine Finance LLC -- has been formed for the
purpose of issuing CP and MTNs in the U.S. domestic market. The obligations of
the subsidiary under the U.S. programs will be unconditionally and irrevocably
guaranteed by White Pine.
White Pine will use the proceeds of issuance from its senior debt and
capital note programs to purchase securities of various ratings, currencies,
and tenures. It will acquire these assets with a view to holding them until
maturity, but there will be no obligation to do so. Interest rate and foreign
exchange exposure will be managed through the use of derivative transactions
that swap all obligations back to a floating-rate basis. All securities and
derivative counterparties must be rated at least 'A-' long-term or 'A-1'
short-term, at the initiation of the transaction.
White Pine must manage its investment portfolio within strict leverage,
credit quality, and diversification limits and maintain sufficient capital
support to allow it to perform on its obligations in full and on a timely
basis.
Should an enforcement event occur, the security trustee will realize its
charge on the asset portfolio, and will manage and liquidate the assets to
repay all senior obligations as they come due in accordance with predetermined
guidelines.
A copy of Standard & Poor's complete presale report for this transaction
is available on RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis
system, at http://www.ratingsdirect.com. The report is also available on
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Web site at
http://www.standardandpoors.com. Under Presale Reports, select Structured
Finance, then Asset-Backed Securities.
RATINGS ASSIGNED
White Pine Corp. Ltd.
Counterparty credit
ratings AAA/--/A-1+
PRELIMINARY RATINGS ASSIGNED
White Pine Corp. Ltd.
$15 billion senior European CP and U.S. and European MTN programs
Class Rating Amount (Bil. $)
European MTN program AAA 5
European CP program A-1+ 5
U.S. MTN program AAA 5
FINAL RATING ASSIGNED
White Pine Corp. Ltd.
$5 billion senior U.S. CP program
Class Rating Amount (Bil. $)
U.S. CP program A-1+ 5
SOURCE Standard & Poor's
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Related links:
http://www.standardandpoors.com/ratings
http://www.ratingsdirect.com
CONTACT:
Juan Carlos Martorell, +44-20-7826-3880,
Katrien van Acoleyen, +44-20-7826-3860, Perry Inglis,
+44-20-7826-3857, Cristina Polizu, +1-212-438-2576, all of
Standard & Poor's
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