CMS Francis Lefebvre acted as legal and tax advisor to the Moroccan bank SOFAC and its management company subsidiary, SOFAC Structured Finance, in relation to the securitisation of debt from vehicle leasing contracts with a purchase option.
As part of this transaction, SOFAC Structured Finance set up a Moroccan securitisation fund called FT SOFAC AUTO LEASE which issued 3,720 bonds on 10 November for a total amount of MAD 372,000,000 and two residual units for a total amount of MAD 4,057,523.16. The bonds were the subject of an initial public offering to qualified Moroccan investors. The fund’s purpose is to acquire debt arising from vehicle leasing contracts with a purchase option, concluded by SOFAC in the course of its usual activity.
This transaction represents a significant innovation for the Moroccan market, since this is the first fund in Morocco dedicated to the acquisition of debt from vehicle leasing contracts with a purchase option. It is also the first transaction carried out for SOFAC.
For this transaction, SOFAC and SOFAC Structured Finance were assisted by the CMS Francis Lefebvre teams in Casablanca and Paris.
Grégory Benteux, Partner, and Estelle Legrand, Associate, from the Paris office were responsible for the structuring aspects of the transaction.
In Casablanca, Rachid Mejdoubi, Associate in charge of the Tax Department, Rachida Charifi, Senior Lawyer, Corporate Law, and Mohamed Walid Roude, Lawyer, Banking and Financial Law, were responsible for aspects of Moroccan law.
