AmeriCredit Corp., a Fort Worth, Texas-based independent auto finance company, on May 13 said it sold its first asset-backed bond pooling Canadian auto loans, worth C$223.8 million, according to Reuters.

The actual sale of the asset-backed bond was completed on May 10 and the issue is slated to close this week. AmeriCredit's deal was sold by lead manager Merrill Lynch Canada Inc., CIBC World Markets Inc. and TD Securities Inc.

The deal is AmeriCredit's first securitization of its Canadian loan portfolio and is the first non-prime automobile loan securitization in Canada.

The Canadian dollar was at C$1.5576 to the U.S. dollar or 64.20 U.S. cents in May 13 midday trading.

This offering is similar to the company's U.S. dollar-denominated senior subordinated securitizations, according to Reuters. The structure of the deal uses a combination of subordinated notes, overcollateralization and a reserve fund to support the ratings instead of bond insurance.

However, unlike the amortizing structure of the U.S. securitizations, the Canadian structure uses bullet maturities while maintaining the sequential payment of the notes.

"This marks the beginning of our Canadian securitization program," said Dan Berce, AmeriCredit chief financial officer. "We're excited about introducing new investors to AmeriCredit's asset-backed transactions and will continue to access this market in the future to support our expansion initiatives in Canada."

This offering is AmeriCredit's 32nd sale of auto loans in an asset-backed bond, according to Reuters. The company has sold a total of $23 billion of auto loan asset-backed bonds.

According to a spokeswoman at AmeriCredit the investors were mostly institutional Canadian investors.