New York, January 17, 2013 -- Moody's ABCP rating actions for the seven-day period ending January
14, 2013
NO RATING IMPACT ON THE FOLLOWING ABCP PROGRAMS DURING THE PERIOD JANUARY
8, 2013 THROUGH JANUARY 14, 2013:
NOTE: On March 13, 2013, the press release was revised as follows: Removed (sf) indicator from the Prime-1 rating of Sinochem’s USD Commercial Paper. The revised heading now reads: “MOODY'S ASSIGNS PRIME-1 RATING TO SINOCHEM'S USD COMMERCIAL PAPER.” Also, in the first paragraph under the heading “BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA'S BAY STREET AND KING STREET ADD C$450 MILLION TRADE RECEIVABLES FACILITY”, added the following ratings for The Bank of Nova Scotia: “(Aa1 on review for possible downgrade/Prime-1/B BFSR on review for possible downgrade)”. Revised release follows.
Moody's has reviewed the following ABCP programs in conjunction
with the proposed amendments. The amendments, in and of themselves
and at this time, will not result in any rating impact on the respective
programs. For the mentioned programs, Moody's believes that
the amendments do not have an adverse effect on the credit quality of
the securities such that the Moody's ratings are impacted.
Moody's does not express an opinion as to whether the amendment could
have other, non-credit-related effects.
MOODY'S ASSIGNS PRIME-1 RATING TO SINOCHEM'S USD COMMERCIAL
PAPER
For further details, please see Moody's press releases dated January
11, 2013.
BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA'S BAY STREET AND KING STREET ADD C$450
MILLION TRADE RECEIVABLES FACILITY
Bay Street Funding Trust ("Bay Street"), and King Street Funding
Trust ("King Street"), partially supported multiseller
ABCP programs administered by The Bank of Nova Scotia (Aa1 on review for possible downgrade/Prime-1/B BFSR on review for possible downgrade), have added
a C$450 million revolving trade receivables facility to their portfolio.
Transaction-specific credit enhancement is comprised of dynamic
reserves and varies depending on historical defaults and dilution.
The transaction is partially supported by a liquidity facility provided
by Prime-1-rated Bank of Nova Scotia. The liquidity
facility will not fund for defaulted receivables.
Bay Street does not have any program wide credit enhancement. Bay
Street currently has C$2.5 billion of purchase commitments
and C$1.77 billion of Canadian ABCP outstandings.
King Street does not have any program wide credit enhancement.
King Street currently has C$887.4 million of purchase commitments
and C$732 million of Canadian ABCP outstandings.
HSBC'S REGENCY ENTERS TWO TRANSACTIONS AND AN AGREEMENT TO PURCHASE PERFORMANCE
TRUST ABCP
Regency Assets Ltd/Regency Markets No.1 LLC ("Regency"),
a partially supported, multiseller conduit sponsored by HSBC Bank
Plc ("HSBC", Aa3/Prime-1/C) has entered into a $100m
trade receivables transaction in respect of assets generated by a US manufacturing
company. HSBC Bank USA, NA provides the fully supporting
liquidity facility. Full support is achieved via a liability based
borrowing base which funds for the face amount of CP issued.
Additionally, Regency has purchased notes secured on a portfolio
of UK auto loans in a GBP275m full-support transaction.
The transaction is fully-supported through a liquidity facility
provided by HSBC France . The liquidity facility is sized at 102%
of the purchase limit and funds for the principal amount of the purchased
notes with no deductions for defaulted assets.
Regency has also entered into an arrangement under which it has agreed
to purchase up to CAD750m of ABCP issued by Performance Trust.
Performance Trust is a Prime-1 (sf) rated partially supported Canadian
ABCP vehicle sponsored by HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc, a subsidiary
of HSBC Bank Canada. Regency issues CP which is match funded with
the CP issued by Performance Trust, hence there is no separate liquidity
facility at Regency level as reliance is placed on the liquidity facility
granted to Performance Trust by HSBC Bank Canada.
Regency has approval to issue ABCP up to transaction limits which aggregate
to USD12.1 billion and has USD183 million in programme-level
credit enhancement.
INTESA SANPAOLO'S ROMULUS ADDS FULLY-SUPPORTED TRANSACTION
Romulus Funding Corp. ("Romulus"), a partially supported,
hybrid ABCP conduit sponsored by Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A.
(Baa2/P-2/C-) ("Intesa") and administered by
Banca IMI Securities Corp., a subsidiary of Banca IMI S.p.A.
(Baa2/P-2/C-), has closed a new transaction structure
within its multi-seller portfolio for the purpose of funding trade
receivables originated by sellers in the Italian agri-foods industry
on a fully-supported basis.
One seller was added at the closing of the transaction: a EUR 67.5
million pool backed by receivables originated in the Italian processed
meats market. Since closing, three further sellers have been
added for an additional EUR 140.3 million.
Each additional seller added to the transaction will be fully supported
under liquidity facilities provided by Intesa which were executed at the
closing of the transaction. With each new seller addition,
the total liquidity commitment will be increased to cover 102%
of the aggregate purchase limit of the transaction. As such,
our analysis was based on the financial strength of Intesa, together
with the legal structure providing full support, rather than the
credit quality of the assets.
The ABCP issued by Romulus is currently rated P-2 (sf).
Romulus has USD 100 million in programme-level credit enhancement,
which will not be increased as sellers are added to the transaction,
due to the full support provided by Intesa.
As at the end of December 2012, Romulus had USD2.93 billion
of ABCP outstanding.
TD'S ZEUS, MERIT AND PRIME ACQUIRE AN INTEREST IN A TRADE RECEIVABLES
FACILITY
Zeus Receivables Trust ("Zeus"), Merit Trust ("Merit"),
and Prime Trust ("Prime"), three partially supported,
multiseller Canadian ABCP programs sponsored by Toronto-Dominion
Bank ("TD," Aaa on review for possible downgrade/Prime-1/B+
BFSR on review for possible downgrade) and administered by TD Securities
Inc., have acquired a C$900 million revolving facility
backed by trade receivables originated by an investment grade rated Canadian
communication and media company. Transaction-specific credit
enhancement is in the form of dynamic overcollateralization equal to a
minimum of 13% of the Aggregate Cash Paid.
The transaction is partially supported by a program-level liquidity
facility provided by Prime-1 rated TD and sized to cover 100%
of outstanding ABCP issued by Zeus, Merit and Prime. The
three programs do not have any program-level credit enhancement.
Zeus has C$2.571 billion in outstanding ABCP; Merit
has C$2.503 billion in outstanding ABCP and Prime has C$2.819
billion in outstanding ABCP.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was "Moody's Approach
to Rating Asset-Backed Commercial Paper" published in May 2012.
Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com for
a copy of this methodology.
Moody's monitors and analyzes ABCP programs on an ongoing basis.
A detailed description of each program is published in the ABCP Program
Review. Some ABCP programs have monthly updated performance information,
which is published in the Performance Overviews. All publications
are available on www.moodys.com.
Valerie Oliveri
Associate Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Everett Rutan
Senior Vice President
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Moody's ABCP rating actions ending January 14, 2013