Approximately $65.0 Million Notional Balance of Structured Securities Affected
New York, March 05, 2014 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) downgraded the rating
of one notional class and affirmed the ratings of two notional classes
of Merrill Lynch Floating Trust Commercial Pass-Through Certificates,
Series 2006-1 as follows:
Cl. X-1B, Downgraded to Caa3 (sf); previously
on Jul 18, 2013 Affirmed Caa1 (sf)
Cl. X-3B, Affirmed C (sf); previously on Jul
18, 2013 Downgraded to C (sf)
Cl. X-3C, Affirmed C (sf); previously on Jul
18, 2013 Downgraded to C (sf)
RATINGS RATIONALE
The downgrade of interest only (IO) Class X-1B is based on the
weighted average rating factor (WARF) of its referenced classes.
The ratings of IO Class X-3B and IO Class X-3C are consistent
with the expected credit performance of their referenced loan, the
Royal Holiday Loan, and thus are affirmed.
FACTORS THAT WOULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATING
The performance expectations for a given variable indicate Moody's forward-looking
view of the likely range of performance over the medium term. Performance
that falls outside the given range may indicate that the collateral's
credit quality is stronger or weaker than Moody's had previously anticipated.
Factors that may cause a downgrade of the ratings include a decline in
the overall performance of the pool, an increase in loan concentration,
increased expected losses from specially serviced and troubled loans or
interest shortfalls.
METHODOLOGY UNDERLYING THE RATING ACTION
The principal methodology used in this rating was "Moody's Approach to
Rating CMBS Large Loan/Single Borrower Transactions" published in July
2000. Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of this methodology.
DESCRIPTION OF MODELS USED
Moody's review incorporated the use of the excel-based Large Loan
Model v 8.6. The large loan model derives credit enhancement
levels based on an aggregation of adjusted loan level proceeds derived
from Moody's loan level LTV ratios. Major adjustments to determining
proceeds include leverage, loan structure, property type,
and sponsorship. These aggregated proceeds are then further adjusted
for any pooling benefits associated with loan level diversity, other
concentrations and correlations.
DEAL PERFORMANCE
As of the February 18, 2014 Payment Date, the transaction's
certificate balance has decreased by 98% to $65.0
million from $95.2 million at last review and $2.6
billion at securitization. A total of 14 loans have paid off since
securitization and one since last review.
One specially serviced loan remains in the pool, the Royal Holiday
Portfolio loan ($65.0 million) secured by six hotels located
in Mexico with a total of 1,501 rooms. Two of the hotels
are located in Cancun, and the other four are located in Cozumel,
Ixtapa, Acapulco and San Jose del Cabo. The loan was transferred
to special servicing in February 2010 and is a non-performing matured
loan. The borrower had filed a Mexican bankruptcy petition for
the Cozumel Caribe Hotel in May 2010. The bankruptcy court terminated
the flow of funds into the lender's cash management system and blocked
the lender from pursuing remedies against the other five assets or the
guarantors. The borrower has not made debt service payments since
May 2010, nor has the borrower provided financials for the hotels.
Interest advances were terminated in late 2012. Currently,
approximately $15.5 million in advances, including
$4.5 million in principal and interest advances, are
outstanding. The $103.0 million whole loan includes
$38.0 million in non-trust subordinate debt.
The special servicer is defending and pursuing multiple legal actions
and foresees a lengthy litigation. Moody's current credit
assessment is C, the same as last review.
The pool has experienced $1.0 million in cumulative bond
losses, affecting Class M, and interest shortfalls total $3.7
million affecting principal and interest (P&I) classes Class L and
Class M, and IO Class X-3B and Class X-3C.
Interest shortfalls are caused by special servicing fees, including
workout and liquidation fees, appraisal subordinate entitlement
reductions (ASERs) and extraordinary trust expenses.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and
sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and
Sensitivity to Assumptions of the disclosure form.
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.
The analysis includes an assessment of collateral characteristics and
performance to determine the expected collateral loss or a range of expected
collateral losses or cash flows to the rated instruments. As a
second step, Moody's estimates expected collateral losses or cash
flows using a quantitative tool that takes into account credit enhancement,
loss allocation and other structural features, to derive the expected
loss for each rated instrument.
Moody's did not use any stress scenario simulations in its analysis.
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides certain 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 certain 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 certain 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.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this rating action, and
whose ratings may change as a result of this rating action, the
associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity.
Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures,
if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure
to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
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.
Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Jay Rosen
Vice President - Senior 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
Keith Banhazl
VP - Sr Credit Officer/Manager
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 Downgrades One and Affirms Two Classes of Merrill Lynch Floating Trust 2006-1