There’s a growing market for ABS where deals are negotiated discreetly between the issuer and a handful of investors. The securities typically don’t receive credit ratings.

The ABS includes royalties for more than 200 songs that hit number one on the charts. However, none of the songs were disclosed in a rating report on the transaction, and only three artists were identified.

Hotwire Communications and Flexential are issuing their first ABS. The Hotwire deal is tied to fiber-to-the-home networks while two ABS from Flexential are linked to data centers.

The two restaurant chains will use the ABS proceeds to largely pay down their previous deals. The Taco Bell issuance received a higher rating than Hooters.

Mortgage securitizations from Freedom Mortgage and New Residential Investment are backed by servicing fees, while Rapid Financial Services is peddling its first small-business ABS since 2018.

Nothing Bundt Cakes is baking a $359 million whole-business ABS. The bakery franchiser was acquired by Roark Capital earlier this year.

Data center securitizations issued in recent years carry elevated leverage that is inconsistent with the A rating they received from rating services other than Fitch.

ABS tied to Bojangles, powersports equipment and airline mileage programs recently hit the market. Meanwhile, a whole-business ABS from Planet Fitness was downgraded.

Issuance of ABS tied to marine container leases set sail in August, with the sector producing more volume in recent weeks than all of 2018 and 2019 combined.

The underlying pool includes prime unsecured consumer loans from Lend-ingClub that were selected using machine learning.