Approximately $285.3 million of securities affected
New York, December 07, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service announced today that, as a result of recent
and expected future changes in the composition of the rental car fleet
backing the notes, it has downgraded four classes of Class B subordinate
rental car asset backed notes and placed on review for downgrade two additional
classes of Class B subordinate rental car asset backed notes issued by
Hertz Vehicle Financing LLC (the Issuer). The Issuer is a special
purpose entity wholly owned by The Hertz Corporation (Hertz, B1/
Stable outlook).
The complete rating action is as follows:
Issuer: Hertz Vehicle Financing LLC, Series 2009-2
Series 2009-2 Class B-2, Downgraded to Baa1 (sf);
previously on December 10, 2010 Upgraded to A1 (sf)
Issuer: Hertz Vehicle Financing LLC, Series 2010-1
Series 2010-1 Class B-1, Downgraded to Baa2 (sf);
previously on December 10, 2010 Upgraded to A1 (sf)
Series 2010-1 Class B-2, Downgraded to Baa2 (sf);
previously on December 10, 2010 Upgraded to A1 (sf)
Series 2010-1 Class B-3, Downgraded to Baa2 (sf);
previously on December 10, 2010 Upgraded to A1 (sf)
Issuer: Hertz Vehicle Financing LLC, Series 2011-1
Series 2011-1 Class B-1, A3 (sf) Placed on Review
for Downgrade; previously on January 12, 2012 Upgraded to A3
(sf)
Series 2011-1 Class B-2, A3 (sf) Placed on Review
for Downgrade; previously on January 12, 2012 Upgraded to A3
(sf)
The Series 2011-1 Class B-1 and Class B-2 notes are
placed on review for downgrade pending expected amendments that would
alter the credit protections for the Class B-1 and Class B-2
notes.
The Series 2009-2 Class B-1 notes are unaffected due to
their near-term maturity date in March 2013. Also,
the Aaa (sf) ratings on the senior Class A notes from the Series listed
above are unaffected by this action.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The rating actions are prompted by a significant shift in the mix of vehicles
in the Issuer's daily rental car fleet, which collateralizes
the Issuer's notes. Specifically, the car fleet mix
has shifted with respect to two important credit characteristics and now
has and is expected to have: (i) a lower proportion of "program"
vehicles, i.e. vehicles that benefit from original
equipment manufacturer (OEM)-guaranteed depreciation or repurchase
agreements, and (ii) a lower proportion of vehicles from financially
stronger OEMs. Both of these shifts are credit negative for the
related notes. In addition, these recent shifts introduce
a degree of variability to the fleet mix that had, until recently,
been relatively stable, and Moody's has changed its expectations
accordingly.
Firstly, the proportion of program vehicles in the collateral pool
backing the transactions has decreased considerably over the past year,
from 29% as of 31 January 2012 to 16% as of 31 October 2012.
Moreover, Hertz has disclosed that the proportion of program vehicles
in their fleet will move towards 10% in the future.
Secondly, Hertz is shifting the mix of OEM in its fleet, decreasing
the proportion of financially stronger OEMs, like Toyota and Nissan
(rated Aa3 and A3, respectively) while increasing the proportion
of vehicles from financially weaker OEMs, such as Chrysler,
Ford, and GM (rated B2, Baa3, and Ba1, respectively).
This also represents a shift from vehicles with historically higher residual
value retention towards vehicles with historically lower residual value
retention. The financial strength of the OEMs and the residual
value retention of their vehicles are drivers of credit quality in rental
car ABS.
The ratings of the notes are based on, among other things,
the credit quality of Hertz as the lessee, the liquidation values
of the vehicles in the rental car fleet, the credit quality of automobile
manufacturers providing vehicle disposition program agreements for program
vehicles, the experience of Hertz as the servicer of the rental
car fleet and the administrator for the Issuer, and the available
credit support provided by a combination of overcollateralization,
cash and/or Letters of Credit (LOCs).
The primary assets backing the notes are the monthly lease payments by
Hertz as well as the pool of vehicles comprising the bulk of the Hertz
daily rental car fleet.
The primary source of assumption uncertainty is the market value of vehicles
in the fleet should fleet liquidation be necessary. To address
this uncertainty, we make assumptions we believe to be conservative
about appropriate recovery value haircuts.
PRINCIPAL RATING METHODOLOGY
The principal methodology used in these ratings "Moody's Approach to Rating
Rental Car ABS and Rental Truck ABS," published in July 2011.
Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com for
a copy of this methodology.
Other methodologies and factors that may have been considered in the process
of rating this issue can also be found in the Research & Ratings directory,
in the Rating Methodologies sub-directory on www.moodys.com.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
The Global Scale Credit Ratings on this press release that are issued
by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU are endorsed by Moody's Investors
Service Ltd., One Canada Square, Canary Wharf,
London E 14 5FA, UK, in accordance with Art. 4 paragraph
3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies.
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
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
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Information sources used to prepare each of the ratings are the following:
parties involved in the ratings, public information, 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 these transactions in the past
six months.
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated
entities, obligations or credits satisfactory for the purposes of
issuing these reviews.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it
uses in assigning the ratings is of sufficient quality and from sources
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independent third-party sources. However, Moody's
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Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for general disclosure on potential conflicts of interests.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for information on (A) MCO's major shareholders (above 5%) and
for (B) further information regarding certain affiliations that may exist
between directors of MCO and rated entities as well as (C) the names of
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for the last rating action and the rating history.
The date on which some ratings were first released goes back to a time
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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.
Gregory J. Gemson
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
Luisa De Gaetano
VP - Senior Credit Officer
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 takes rating actions on 6 classes of Hertz-sponsored subordinate rental car ABS notes