Farmer Mac Guarantees $475 Million Of 3-Year Notes

WASHINGTON, DC (AHN) -- The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac) announced Tuesday that it completed a new transaction in which it is guaranteeing $475 million of three- year agricultural mortgage-backed Notes issued by M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank. The transaction is a part of Farmer Mac's ongoing diversification of its marketing focus and expansion of its program offerings to meet the liquidity needs of agricultural mortgage lenders throughout the country.

The offering of the sale of these Notes in the capital markets was announced by Farmer Mac this past August 14th. The transaction is part of Farmer Mac's ongoing "AgVantage" program, in which it guarantees the timely payment of principal and interest on Notes issued by an agricultural mortgage lender and secured by Farmer Mac eligible agricultural mortgages.

The Notes issued Tuesday are rated Aaa by Moody's Investors Service, Inc. and AAA by DBRS, Inc.

Henry D. Edelman, Farmer Mac president and CEO commented, "This transaction further advances Farmer Mac's congressional mission to provide greater liquidity to agricultural and rural lenders, including commercial banks, insurance companies, the Farm Credit System and other cooperative lenders. It underscores Farmer Mac's ongoing ability to provide a sound secondary market for its customer constituencies in the U.S. agricultural sector and to achieve this business objective through large program transactions that emphasize high asset quality."