Madrid, August 07, 2014 -- Moody's Investors Service has today taken the following rating actions
on 19 Portuguese asset-backed securities (ABS) and residential
mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) transactions.
The rating agency has upgraded to A3(sf) eight notes in six Portuguese
ABS and nine notes in eight Portuguese RMBS transactions, to Baa1(sf)
two notes in two Portuguese RMBS transaction and to B1(sf) one note in
one Portuguese ABS transaction. At the same time, Moody's
placed on review for upgrade three notes in three Portuguese RMBS transactions.
Today's rating upgrades and review for upgrade actions follow the upgrade
of the Portuguese sovereign rating to Ba1 from Ba2 and the resulting increase
of the local currency country ceiling to A3 from Baa1 which reflect improvements
in institutional strength and reduced susceptibility to event risk associated
with lower government liquidity and banking sector risks (https://www.moodys.com/research/PR_304267).
Please click here http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF376822
for the list of affected credit ratings. This list is an integral
part of this press release and provides, for each of the credit
ratings covered, Moody's disclosures on the following items:
principal methodology used, lead analyst, person approving
the credit rating, releasing office.
RATINGS RATIONALE
Upgrades
Today's upgrades to A3 (sf), Baa1(sf) and B1(sf) have been prompted
by (1) the reduced country risk as reflected by the increase in the maximum
achievable rating in Portugal (the local-currency country ceiling)
to A3 from Baa1; (2) the high level of credit enhancement in the
affected transactions; and (3) well mitigated counterparty risks
including those relating to servicers, account banks and swap providers.
Tariff Deficit transactions
Moody's upgraded to A3(sf) the rating of the notes of the Portuguese electricity
tariff deficits deals, Volta Electricity Receivables Securitisation
(Volta) and Volta II Electricity Receivables Securitisation Notes (Volta
II) as Moody's considers the assets backing the notes in Portuguese electricity
tariff deficits to be high quality receivables, given their current
backing by laws and regulation.
Moody's also upgraded to A3(sf) from Baa3(sf) on review for upgrade the
rating of the notes of the other two Portuguese electricity tariff deficits
deals EnergyOn No.1 Securitisation Notes (EnergyOn 1) & EnergyOn
No. 2 Securitisation Notes (EnergyOn 2). This action concludes
the review process initiated on 29 May 2014. The review focused
on the level of linkage between the credit quality of the notes and the
swap counterparties, Deutsche Bank AG (A3/P-2) and Banco
Santander S.A. (Spain) (Baa1/P-2) respectively.
Today's action on these deals reflect the availability of credit
enhancement to address the notes exposure to the swap counterparties.
Review for upgrade
The ratings of Class A notes of Atlantes Mortgages No. 1 Plc and
Azor Mortgages Public Limited Company remain or have been placed on review
for upgrade. Their exposure to servicer BANIF-Banco Internacional
do Funchal, S.A. (Caa1) will be assessed during the
review process to determine if it is consistent with A3(sf) rating.
This is also the case for class A notes of Lusitano Mortgages No.
1 plc whose ratings have been placed on review for upgrade and for which
the exposure to Banco Espirito Santo, S.A. (B2,
on review for downgrade) will be assessed.
In addition the review for upgrade of the ratings of class A notes of
Douro Mortgages No. 1 Plc reflects the reduced country risk leading
to the review of (1) the transactions' loss distribution, an integral
part in determining the affected notes ratings and (2) the current credit
enhancement level. During the review process, Moody's will
also factor in its analysis any potential linkage of transactions to relevant
counterparties, such as servicers, account banks or swap providers.
Factors that would lead to an upgrade or downgrade of the ratings:
Factors or circumstances that could lead to an upgrade of the ratings
include (1) a further reduction in the level of country risk, (2)
performance of the underlying collateral that is better than Moody's expected,
(3) deleveraging of the capital structure and (4) improvements in the
credit quality of the transaction counterparties.
Factors or circumstances that could lead to a downgrade of the ratings
include (1) an increase in country risk, (2) performance of the
underlying collateral that is worse than Moody's expects, (3) deterioration
in the notes' available credit enhancement, and (4) deterioration
in the credit quality of the transaction counterparties.
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 these transactions
in the past six months.
In rating these transactions, Moody's used a cash flow model
to model cash flow stress scenarios to determine the extent to which investors
would receive timely payments of interest and principal in the stress
scenarios, given the transaction structure and collateral composition.
As the section on loss and cash flow analysis describes, Moody's
quantitative analysis entails an evaluation of scenarios that stress factors
contributing to sensitivity of ratings and take into account the likelihood
of severe collateral losses or impaired cash flows. Moody's
weights the impact on the rated instruments based on its assumptions of
the likelihood of the events in such scenarios occurring.
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.
The below contact information is provided for information purposes only.
Please see the ratings tab of the issuer page at www.moodys.com,
for each of the ratings covered, Moody's disclosures on the
lead analyst and the Moody's legal entity that has issued the ratings.
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.
Maria Turbica Manrique
Asst Vice President - Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service Espana, S.A.
Calle Principe de Vergara, 131, 6 Planta
Madrid 28002
Spain
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Christophe de Noaillat
MD - Structured Finance
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Anne-Sophie Spirito
AVP - Analyst
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service Espana, S.A.
Calle Principe de Vergara, 131, 6 Planta
Madrid 28002
Spain
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Moody's takes rating actions on Portuguese ABS and RMBS transactions