London, 05 November 2014 -- Moody's Investors Service has today upgraded the ratings of seven notes
in two Portuguese residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS)
transactions: Atlantes Mortgage No.1 Plc and Azor Mortgages
Public Limited Company. This rating action is prompted by the increase
in the country ceiling to A3.
Please refer to the end of the Ratings Rationale section for a list of
affected ratings.
Today rating upgrades follow the upgrade of the Portuguese sovereign rating
to Ba1 from Ba2 on 25 July 2014 and the resulting increase of the local-currency
country ceiling to A3 from Baa1 (http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PR_304267)
which reflects the strong government commitment to fiscal consolidation
and the reduced susceptibility to even risk associated with lower government
liquidity and banking sector risk.
Today's rating action concludes the review of the notes placed on review
for upgrade, following either the first upgrade of the Portuguese
sovereign rating this year to Ba2 on 9 May 2014 or the second upgrade
to Ba1 on 25 July 2014.
RATINGS RATIONALE
Today's rating actions reflect (1) the increase in the Portuguese local-currency
country ceiling to A3 and (2) sufficiency of credit enhancement in the
affected transactions; for the revised rating levels.
-- Reduced Sovereign Risk
The Portuguese sovereign rating was upgraded to Ba1 in July 2014,
which resulted in an increase in the local-currency country ceiling
to A3. The Portuguese country ceiling, and therefore the
maximum rating that Moody's will assign to a domestic Portuguese issuer
including structured finance transactions backed by Portuguese receivables,
is A3 (sf).
The increase of credit enhancement combined with the reduction in sovereign
risk has prompted the upgrade of the notes.
-- Key collateral assumptions
The key collateral assumptions have not been updated for any of the two
transactions as part of this review. The performance of the underlying
asset portfolios remain in line with Moody's assumptions. Moody's
also has a stable outlook (http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF373727)
for Portuguese RMBS transactions.
-- Exposure to Counterparties
Moody's rating analysis also took into consideration the exposure to key
transaction counterparties. Including the roles of servicer,
account bank, and swap provider.
Today's rating action takes into account servicer commingling and set-off
exposure to BANIF-Banco Internacional do Funchal, S.A.
(Caa1/NP).
Moody's also assessed the exposure to Credit Suisse International
(A1/P-1) and Citibank, N.A. (London Branch)
(A2/(P)P-1) as swap counterparties of Atlantes Mortgage No.1
Plc and Azor Mortgages Public Limited company respectively.
Principal Methodology
The principal methodology used in these ratings was "Moody's Approach
to Rating RMBS Using the MILAN Framework" 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 ratings:
Factors or circumstances that could lead to an upgrade of the ratings
include (1) further reduction in sovereign 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 sovereign 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.
List of Affected Ratings:
Issuer: Atlantes Mortgage No.1 Plc
....EUR 462.5M Class A Notes,
Upgraded to A3 (sf); previously on Aug 7, 2014 Upgraded to
Baa1 (sf) and Remained On Review for Possible Upgrade
....EUR 22.5M Class B Notes,
Upgraded to Baa2 (sf); previously on May 29, 2014 Ba2 (sf)
Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade
....EUR 12.5M Class C Notes,
Upgraded to Ba3 (sf); previously on May 29, 2014 B3 (sf) Placed
Under Review for Possible Upgrade
....EUR 2.5M Class D Notes, Upgraded
to B3 (sf); previously on Jul 5, 2013 Confirmed at Caa1 (sf)
Issuer: Azor Mortgages Public Limited Company
....EUR 253M Class A Notes, Upgraded
to A3 (sf); previously on Aug 7, 2014 Baa1 (sf) Placed Under
Review for Possible Upgrade
....EUR 19M Class B Notes, Upgraded
to A3 (sf); previously on May 29, 2014 Ba1 (sf) Placed Under
Review for Possible Upgrade
....EUR 9M Class C Notes, Upgraded to
Ba1 (sf); previously on May 29, 2014 Ba3 (sf) Placed Under
Review for Possible Upgrade
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.
The analysis relies on an assessment of collateral characteristics to
determine the collateral loss distribution, that is, the function
that correlates to an assumption about the likelihood of occurrence to
each level of possible losses in the collateral. As a second step,
Moody's evaluates each possible collateral loss scenario using a
model that replicates the relevant structural features to derive payments
and therefore the ultimate potential losses for each rated instrument.
The loss a rated instrument incurs in each collateral loss scenario,
weighted by assumptions about the likelihood of events in that scenario
occurring, results in the expected loss of the rated instrument.
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.
Maria Divid
Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service Ltd.
One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 5FA
United Kingdom
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Anthony Parry
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Cristina Quintana
Analyst
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service Ltd.
One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 5FA
United Kingdom
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Moody's upgrades seven notes in two Portuguese RMBS transactions: Atlantes Mortgage No.1 Plc and Azor Mortgages Public Limited company