New York, January 25, 2012 -- Moody's ABCP rating actions for the seven-day period ending January
23, 2012
THE RATINGS OF THE FOLLOWING ABCP PROGRAM WERE AFFIRMED AT PRIME-1
(SF) DURING THE PERIOD JANUARY 17, 2012 THROUGH JANUARY 23,
2012:
FORTIS BANK'S SCALDIS REDUCES INTEREST IN AND AMENDS EXISTING AUTO LOAN
FACILITY
Scaldis Capital Limited, Scaldis Capital (Ireland) Limited and Scaldis
Capital LLC (together, "Scaldis"), a partially supported,
hybrid ABCP programme sponsored by Fortis Bank S.A./N.V.
(A1/Prime-1/C-), has amended an existing Italian auto
loan facility and reduced its commitment to EUR 166.5 million after
syndication of the facility.
Two ABCP programs, JPMorgan's Jupiter Securitization Company
LLC and Credit Suisse's Alpine Securitization Corp.,
entered the facility as co-purchasers of the senior notes.
Each co-purchaser now holds EUR 166.5 million of senior
notes. Scaldis was previously the sole investor holding EUR 500
million of senior notes.
The transaction remains partially supported in Scaldis. The liquidity
is sized at 102% of the maximum principal amount of the transaction
and is provided by Prime-1 rated Fortis Bank.
The main amendments relate to the extension of the revolving period by
one year and the increase in the transaction specific- credit enhancement
by approximately 6% to 32.84% (excluding excess spread)
as a result of implementation of a second subordinated note. The
transaction specific credit-entrancement is a combination of subordinated
notes, cash reserve and excess spread. The cash reserve increases
if the percentage of auto loans with residual value in the pool exceeds
a certain threshold.
With this transaction, Scaldis is authorized to issue USD 6.05
billion of ABCP and has USD 125 million in programme-level credit
enhancement.
INTESA SANPAOLO'S ROMULUS ADDS TWO TRANSACTIONS
Romulus Funding Corporation ("Romulus"), a partially supported,
hybrid ABCP conduit sponsored by Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A.
("Intesa", rated A2/Prime-1/C+) and administered by
Banca IMI Securities Corp., a subsidiary of Banca IMI S.p.A.
(A2/Prime-1/C-), has added a EUR 564 million transaction
backed by trade receivables originated by an Italian energy company and
a EUR 71.3 million transaction backed by trade receivables originated
by an Italian utilities company. Both transactions are fully supported
by liquidity facilities sized at 102% of the respective purchase
limits and provided by Intesa.
Romulus has USD 350 million in programme-level credit enhancement,
which was not increased with these transactions since the transactions
are both fully supported. As of 31 December 2011, Romulus
had USD 2.596 billion of ABCP outstanding.
RATINGS RATIONALE
Romulus Funding Corporation: The transactions are fully supported
by transaction-specific liquidity facilities. The liquidity
facilities cover the face amount of ABCP and are provided by a Prime-1
bank.
Scaldis Capital Limited, Scaldis Capital (Ireland) Limited and Scaldis
Capital LLC: The auto loan portfolio is performing as expected and
the increase in credit enhancement together with the reduction of Scaldis
commitment are viewed as credit positive, as the transaction was
the largest concentration in Scaldis' portfolio. In addition,
the liquidity support for the transaction continues to cover for seller
risks and is provided by a Prime-1 rated bank.
THE FOLLOWING ABCP PROGRAM WAS PLACED UNDER REVIEW FOR POSSIBLE DOWNGRADE
DURING THE PERIOD JANUARY 17, 2012 THROUGH JANUARY 23, 2012:
COMMERZBANK'S BEETHOVEN FUNDING CORPORATION ABCP PLACED ON REVIEW
FOR POSSIBLE DOWNGRADE
For further details, please see Moody's press release dated January
18, 2012.
COMMERZBANK'S SILVER TOWER FUNDING LIMITED/SILVER TOWER US FUNDING
LLC ABCP AND EURO MEDIUM-TERM NOTES PLACED ON REVIEW FOR POSSIBLE
DOWNGRADE
For further details, please see Moody's press release dated January
20, 2012.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was "Moody's Approach
to Rating Asset-Backed Commercial Paper" published in February
2003. 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.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Although these credit ratings have been issued in a non-EU country
which has not been recognized as endorsable at this date, the credit
ratings are deemed "EU qualified by extension" and may still
be used by financial institutions for regulatory purposes until 31 January
2012. ESMA may extend the use of credit ratings for regulatory
purposes in the European Community for three additional months,
until 30 April 2012, if ESMA decides that exceptional circumstances
arise that may imply potential market disruption or financial instability.
Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's
office that has issued a particular Credit Rating is available on www.moodys.com.
Beethoven Funding Corporation
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings
are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's
rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular
rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the
support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive
rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt,
in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed
prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would
have affected the rating. For further information please see the
ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
This rated entity or its agent(s) participated in the rating process.
The rated entity or its agent(s) provided Moody's access to the
books, records and other relevant internal documents of the rated
entity.
The rating has been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s)
and issued with amendment resulting from that disclosure.
Information sources used to prepare the rating are the following:
parties involved in the ratings, and confidential and proprietary
Moody's Investors Service information.
Moody's did not receive or take into account a third-party
assessment on the due diligence performed regarding the underlying assets
or financial instruments related to the monitoring of this transaction
in the past six months.
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated
entity, obligation or credit satisfactory for the purposes of issuing
this review.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it
uses in assigning a rating is of sufficient quality and from sources Moody's
considers to be reliable including, when appropriate, independent
third-party sources. However, Moody's is not
an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or validate
information received in the rating process.
Please see Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions on the Rating
Process page on www.moodys.com for further information on
the meaning of each rating category and the definition of default and
recovery.
Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for the last rating action and the rating history. The date on
which some ratings were first released goes back to a time before Moody's
ratings were fully digitized and accurate data may not be available.
Consequently, Moody's provides a date that it believes is
the most reliable and accurate based on the information that is available
to it. Please see the ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com
for further information.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has
issued the rating.
Wanda Lee
Asst Vice President - 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 23, 2012