In Structured Credit Investor, Patricia Lynch and Matthieu Wharmby Discussed Domino’s Pizza $1.32 Billion Refinancing

In a Structured Credit Investor article, finance partner Patricia Lynch, who leads the firm’s U.S. securitization practice, and finance counsel Matthieu Wharmby discussed the Domino’s Pizza $1.32 billion refinancing that signals the next phase of whole-business securitization (WBS) asset backed securities (ABS) industry growth.

The article notes how the recent Domino’s Pizza franchise refinancing, 18 years after its debut led by Ropes & Gray, now streamlines cashflows, adds production assets and modernizes terms of securitization, paving the way for broader WBS innovation.

The transaction, mixing both term ABS and variable funding notes, refinances certain existing debt and pulls the bulk of the Domino’s production assets into the securitization structure for the first time. It also introduces a novel feature allowing certain international franchise agreements to be moved outside the structure while continuing to pay a “synthetic royalty” back into the securitization under certain circumstances.

The article cites a recent deal that Ropes & Gray represented on Arcline Investment Management’s securitization of emergency communications provider Kings III of America in an inaugural ABS notes offering.