Simmons & Simmons has acted as legal counsel to Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, as arranger, on the new Italian securitisation of receivables deriving from auto-loans, originated by RCI Banque S.A., Italian Branch.

The team was coordinated by Giulia Arenaccio (of Counsel), together with associate Riccardo Franceschelli and trainee Matteo Scuriatti, and partner Michele Citarella, together with senior associate Ernesto Caso, for the Italian tax law aspects.

The securitisation has been carried out by Cars Alliance Auto Loans Italy 2015 S.r.l., an Italian securitisation vehicle, through the issue of a senior class and a junior class of asset-backed securities, for an aggregate amount of around €1bn. The Senior Notes have been rated by DBRS and Fitch and have been listed on the official list of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

RCI Banque is the Alliance brand finance company and as such provides financing for Renault Group (Renault, Renault Samsung Motors and Dacia) sales worldwide and for Nissan Group (Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun) sales mainly in Europe, in Russia and in South America.