New York, December 16, 2014 -- Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the rating on one note issued by
Pacific Bay CDO, Ltd.:
U.S.$64,000,000 Class A-2 Second
Priority Senior Secured Floating Rate Notes Due 2038 (current outstanding
balance of $53,273,378), Upgraded to Ba1 (sf);
previously on March 20, 2014 Upgraded to B3 (sf)
Pacific Bay CDO, Ltd., issued in November 2003,
is a collateralized debt obligation backed primarily by a portfolio of
RMBS, ABS, CMBS and Corporate securities, with over
60% of the portfolio consisting of RMBS originated from 2002 to
2005.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The rating action is due primarily to the deleveraging of the senior notes
and an increase in the transaction's over-collateralization
(OC) ratios since March 2014. The Class A-2 notes have paid
down by approximately 20.0%, or $13.3
million since March 2014. The paydown includes repayment of $2.5
million of the Class A-2 note deferred interest balance.
Based on Moody's calculation, the OC ratio of the Class A-2
note is 139.40%, versus 89.63% in March
2014. The increase in the Moody's calculated Class A-2
OC ratio is due to deleveraging of the A-2 notes as well as inclusion
of $25 million of trustee-defaulted assets previously excluded
in calculating the ratio. These assets are all currently rated
Caa3 or better and are currently performing. As a result,
Moody's believes their inclusion in the analysis of performing par provides
a more reasonable assessment of collateral coverage.
The deal has also benefited from an improvement in the weighted average
spread (WAS) of the portfolio. Based on the trustee's October
2014 report, the WAS is currently 3.52%, compared
to 2.27% in February 2014.
On December 10, 2008, the transaction experienced an "Event
of Default" and a majority of the controlling class directed the trustee
to declare the notes immediately due and payable in May 2009. As
a result of acceleration, the Class A notes will receive all interest
and principal proceeds until they are paid in full. On the transaction's
November 2014 payment date, $943,229 of excess interest
proceeds were used to pay down Class A notes. The Event of Default
continues.
Methodology Underlying the Rating Action
The principal methodology used in this rating was "Moody's Approach to
Rating SF CDOs," published in March 2014. Please see the
Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this
methodology.
Factors That Would Lead To an Upgrade or Downgrade of the Rating:
This transaction is subject to a number of factors and circumstances that
could lead to either an upgrade or downgrade of the ratings, as
described below:
1) Macroeconomic uncertainty: Primary causes of uncertainty about
assumptions are the extent of any slowdown in growth in the current macroeconomic
environment and in the commercial and residential real estate property
markets. Although the commercial real estate property markets are
gaining momentum, consistent growth will be unlikely until the volume
of transactions increases, distressed properties are cleared from
the pipeline and job creation rebounds. The residential real estate
property market is subject to uncertainty about housing prices; the
pace of residential mortgage foreclosures, loan modifications and
refinancing; the unemployment rate; and interest rates.
2) Deleveraging: One source of uncertainty in this transaction is
whether deleveraging from unscheduled principal proceeds, recoveries
from defaulted assets, and excess interest proceeds will continue
and at what pace. Faster deleveraging than Moody's expects
could have a significant impact on the notes' ratings.
3) Recovery of defaulted assets: The amount of recoveries received
from defaulted assets reported by the trustee and those that Moody's
assumes as having defaulted as well as the timing of these recoveries
create additional uncertainty. Moody's analyzed defaulted
assets assuming limited recoveries, and therefore, realization
of any recoveries exceeding Moody's expectation in the future would
positively impact the notes' ratings.
Loss and Cash Flow Analysis:
Moody's applies a Monte Carlo simulation framework in Moody's
CDOROM™ to model the loss distribution for SF CDOs. The simulated
defaults and recoveries for each of the Monte Carlo scenarios define the
reference pool's loss distribution. Moody's then uses
the loss distribution as an input in the CDOEdge™ cash flow model.
In addition to the base case analysis, Moody's also conducted sensitivity
analyses to test the impact of a number of default probabilities on the
rated notes. Below is a summary of the impact of different default
probabilities on all of the rated notes (by the difference in the number
of notches versus the current model output, for which a positive
difference corresponds to lower expected loss):
Ba1 and below ratings notched up by two rating notches:
Class A-2: +3
Class B: 0
Class C: 0
Preference Shares: 0
Ba1 and below ratings notched down by two notches:
Class A-2: -3
Class B: 0
Class C: 0
Preference Shares: 0
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.
Moody's describes its loss and cash flow analysis in the section
"Ratings Rationale" of this press release.
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.
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.
Kristen Contrera
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
David Ham
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 upgrades rating on $53.3 million of SF CDO notes issued by Pacific Bay CDO, Ltd.