Irvine-based Auto financier Consumer Portfolio Services Inc. said Thursday it has struck deals for $120 million in financing that it plans to use to fund auto loans and sell them as bonds to Wall Street.
Consumer Portfolio said it entered a $100 million, two-year warehouse credit line with affiliates of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Fortress Investment Group LLC, both of New York.
The credit line is backed by loans Consumer Portfolio now holds or purchases from auto dealers.
The company also struck a $20 million debt financing deal with Los Angeles-based Levine Leichtman Capital Partners.
The financings “should facilitate our return as a regular issuer in the term securitization market,” Chief Executive Charles E. Bradley Jr. said.
Consumer Portfolio, which has a market value of $18 million, makes loans to auto buyers and then bundles the loans for sale to investors.
Proceeds are used to fund more loans.
The financial crisis of late 2008 killed Consumer Portfolio’s business of selling loans to investors.
In September, the company made its first securitization in two years in an offering worth $85 million.
“Getting that deal closed should enhance our fund raising efforts in the near term and set the stage for lower funding costs in 2011,” Bradley said in November.
Consumer Portfolio has stepped up its funding of loans from auto dealers. In the third quarter, it funded $35.3 million of contracts from dealers, up from $26.7 million in the second quarter.
