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2.            You acknowledge and agree that Moody’s credit ratings: (i) are current opinions of the future relative creditworthiness of securities and address no other risk; and (ii) are not statements of current or historical fact or recommendations to purchase, hold or sell particular securities.  Moody’s credit ratings and publications are not intended for retail investors, and it would be reckless and inappropriate for retail investors to use Moody’s credit ratings and publications when making an investment decision.  No warranty, express or implied, as the accuracy, timeliness, completeness, merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose of any Moody’s credit rating is given or made by Moody’s in any form whatsoever.          

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Related Issuers
Rating Action:

Moody's upgrades the ratings of CLO notes issued by Wasatch CLO Ltd.

18 Feb 2011

USD $52 million of debt securities affected

New York, February 18, 2011 -- Moody's Investors Service announced today that it has upgraded the ratings of the following notes issued by Wasatch CLO Ltd.:

U.S.$29,000,000 Class C Senior Secured Deferrable Floating Rate Notes due 2022, Upgraded to B3 (sf); previously on November 23, 2010 Caa2 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade;

U.S.$13,000,000 Class D Secured Deferrable Floating Rate Notes due 2022, Upgraded to Caa3 (sf); previously on November 23, 2010 C (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade;

U.S.$7,400,000 Type I Composite Notes due 2022 (current Rated Balance of 4,588,096), Upgraded to B1 (sf); previously on October 5, 2009 Downgraded to B2 (sf);

U.S.$10,000,000 Type III Composite Notes due 2022 (current Rated Balance of 5,494,833), Upgraded to B1 (sf); previously on October 5, 2009 Downgraded to B3 (sf).

RATINGS RATIONALE

According to Moody's, the rating actions taken on the notes result primarily from improvement in the credit quality of the underlying portfolio and an increase in the overcollateralization ratios of the notes since the rating action in October 2009.

Improvement in the credit quality is observed through an improvement in the average credit rating (as measured by the weighted average rating factor) and a decrease in defaults. In particular, as of the latest trustee report dated January 2011, the weighted average rating factor is currently 2781 compared to 2868 in the August 2009 report. Defaulted securities total about 3 million of the underlying portfolio compared to 61 million in August 2009. In addition, the proportion of securities from issuers rated Caa1 and below is 6.42% currently, compared to 8.64% in August 2009.

The overcollateralization ratios of the rated notes have also improved since the last rating action. The Class A, B, C and D OC levels are 123.56%, 114.01%, 108.29% and 105.91% respectively, versus August 2009 levels of 117.48%, 108.40%, 102.97% and 100.66% respectively, and all related overcollateralization tests are currently in compliance. In addition, the Class D notes are no longer PIKing, and all deferred interest has been repaid.

Due to the impact of revised and updated key assumptions referenced in "Moody's Approach to Rating Collateralized Loan Obligations" and "Annual Sector Review (2009): Global CLOs," key model inputs used by Moody's in its analysis, such as par, weighted average rating factor, diversity score, and weighted average recovery rate, may be different from the trustee's reported numbers. In its base case, Moody's analyzed the underlying collateral pool to have a performing par balance, including principal proceeds, of $620.5 million, defaulted par of $9.2 million, weighted average default probability of 34.2%(implying a WARF of 4165), a weighted average recovery rate upon default of 41.57%, and a diversity score of 70. These default and recovery properties of the collateral pool are incorporated in cash flow model analysis where they are subject to stresses as a function of the target rating of each CLO liability being reviewed. The default probability is derived from the credit quality of the collateral pool and Moody's expectation of the remaining life of the collateral pool. The average recovery rate to be realized on future defaults is based primarily on the seniority of the assets in the collateral pool. In each case, historical and market performance trends, and collateral manager latitude for trading the collateral are also factors.

Wasatch CLO Ltd., issued in May 2007, is a collateralized loan obligation backed primarily by a portfolio of senior secured loans.

The principal methodologies used in this rating were "Moody's Approach to Rating Collateralized Loan Obligations" published in August 2009, and "Using the Structured Note Methodology to Rate CDO Combo-Notes" published in February 2004.

Moody's Investors Service did not receive or take into account a third-party due diligence report on the underlying assets or financial instruments related to the monitoring of this transaction in the past six months.

Moody's modeled the transaction using the Binomial Expansion Technique, as described in Section 2.3.2.1 of the "Moody's Approach to Rating Collateralized Loan Obligations" rating methodology published in August 2009.

In addition to the base case analysis described above, Moody's also performed sensitivity analyses to test the impact on all rated notes of various default probabilities.

Below is a summary of the impact of different default probabilities (expressed in terms of WARF levels) on all rated notes (shown in terms of the number of notches' difference versus the current model output, where a positive difference corresponds to lower expected loss), assuming that all other factors are held equal:

Moody's Adjusted WARF + 20% (4998)

Class A-1a: -3

Class A-1b: -3

Class A2: -2

Class B: -2

Class C: -5

Class D: -1

Type I composite: -2

Type III composite: -2

Moody's Adjusted WARF - 20% (3332)

Class A-1a: +2

Class A-1b: +2

Class A2: +3

Class B: +2

Class C: +2

Class D: +3

Type I composite: +2

Type III composite: +2

Moody's notes that this transaction is subject to a high level of macroeconomic uncertainty, as evidenced by 1) uncertainties of credit conditions in the general economy and 2) the large concentration of speculative-grade debt maturing between 2012 and 2014 which may create challenges for issuers to refinance. CDO notes' performance may also be impacted by 1) the manager's investment strategy and behavior, 2) divergence in legal interpretation of CDO documentation by different transactional parties due to embedded ambiguities.

Sources of additional performance uncertainties are described below:

1) Weighted average life: The notes' ratings are sensitive to the weighted average life assumption of the portfolio, which may be extended due to the manager's decision to reinvest into new issue loans or other loans with longer maturities and/or participate in amend-to-extend offerings. Moody's tested for a possible extension of the actual weighted average life in its analysis.

2) Recovery of defaulted assets: Market value fluctuations in defaulted assets reported by the trustee and those assumed to be defaulted by Moody's may create volatility in the deal's overcollateralization levels. Further, the timing of recoveries and the manager's decision to work out versus selling defaulted assets create additional uncertainties. Moody's analyzed defaulted recoveries assuming the lower of the market price and the recovery rate in order to account for potential volatility in market prices.

3) Other collateral quality metrics: The deal is allowed to reinvest and the manager has the ability to deteriorate the collateral quality metrics' existing cushions against the covenant levels. Moody's analyzed the impact of assuming lower of reported and covenanted values for weighted average rating factor, weighted average spread, weighted average coupon, and diversity score. However, as part of the base case, Moody's considered spread and coupon levels higher than the covenant levels due to the large difference between the reported and covenant levels.

Further information on Moody's analysis of this transaction is available on www.moodys.com. In addition, Moody's publishes a weekly summary of structured finance credit, ratings and methodologies, available to all registered users of our web site, at www.moodys.com/SFQuickCheck.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

Information sources used to prepare the credit rating are the following: parties involved in the ratings, public information, and confidential and proprietary Moody's Investors Service's information.

Moody's Investors Service considers the quality of information available on the issuer satisfactory for the purposes of maintaining a credit rating.

Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it uses in assigning a credit rating is of sufficient quality and from sources Moody's considers to be reliable including, when appropriate, independent third-party sources. However, Moody's is not an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or validate information received in the rating process.

Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on Moodys.com for the last rating action and the rating history.

The date on which some Credit Ratings were first released goes back to a time before Moody's Investors Service's Credit Ratings were fully digitized and accurate data may not be available. Consequently, Moody's Investors Service provides a date that it believes is the most reliable and accurate based on the information that is available to it. Please see the ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com for further information.

Please see the Credit Policy page on Moodys.com for the methodologies used in determining ratings, further information on the meaning of each rating category and the definition of default and recovery.

New York
Sindhu Veluri
Asst Vice President - Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653

New York
Ramon O. Torres
Senior Vice President
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653

Moody's Investors Service
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653

Moody's upgrades the ratings of CLO notes issued by Wasatch CLO Ltd.
No Related Data.
© 2019 Moody’s Corporation, Moody’s Investors Service, Inc., Moody’s Analytics, Inc. and/or their licensors and affiliates (collectively, “MOODY’S”). All rights reserved.

CREDIT RATINGS ISSUED BY MOODY'S INVESTORS SERVICE, INC. AND ITS RATINGS AFFILIATES (“MIS”) ARE MOODY’S CURRENT OPINIONS OF THE RELATIVE FUTURE CREDIT RISK OF ENTITIES, CREDIT COMMITMENTS, OR DEBT OR DEBT-LIKE SECURITIES, AND MOODY’S PUBLICATIONS MAY INCLUDE MOODY’S CURRENT OPINIONS OF THE RELATIVE FUTURE CREDIT RISK OF ENTITIES, CREDIT COMMITMENTS, OR DEBT OR DEBT-LIKE SECURITIES. MOODY’S DEFINES CREDIT RISK AS THE RISK THAT AN ENTITY MAY NOT MEET ITS CONTRACTUAL FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS AS THEY COME DUE AND ANY ESTIMATED FINANCIAL LOSS IN THE EVENT OF DEFAULT OR IMPAIRMENT. SEE MOODY’S RATING SYMBOLS AND DEFINITIONS PUBLICATION FOR INFORMATION ON THE TYPES OF CONTRACTUAL FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS ADDRESSED BY MOODY’S RATINGS. CREDIT RATINGS DO NOT ADDRESS ANY OTHER RISK, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: LIQUIDITY RISK, MARKET VALUE RISK, OR PRICE VOLATILITY. CREDIT RATINGS AND MOODY’S OPINIONS INCLUDED IN MOODY’S PUBLICATIONS ARE NOT STATEMENTS OF CURRENT OR HISTORICAL FACT. MOODY’S PUBLICATIONS MAY ALSO INCLUDE QUANTITATIVE MODEL-BASED ESTIMATES OF CREDIT RISK AND RELATED OPINIONS OR COMMENTARY PUBLISHED BY MOODY’S ANALYTICS, INC. CREDIT RATINGS AND MOODY’S PUBLICATIONS DO NOT CONSTITUTE OR PROVIDE INVESTMENT OR FINANCIAL ADVICE, AND CREDIT RATINGS AND MOODY’S PUBLICATIONS ARE NOT AND DO NOT PROVIDE RECOMMENDATIONS TO PURCHASE, SELL, OR HOLD PARTICULAR SECURITIES. NEITHER CREDIT RATINGS NOR MOODY’S PUBLICATIONS COMMENT ON THE SUITABILITY OF AN INVESTMENT FOR ANY PARTICULAR INVESTOR. MOODY’S ISSUES ITS CREDIT RATINGS AND PUBLISHES MOODY’S PUBLICATIONS WITH THE EXPECTATION AND UNDERSTANDING THAT EACH INVESTOR WILL, WITH DUE CARE, MAKE ITS OWN STUDY AND EVALUATION OF EACH SECURITY THAT IS UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR PURCHASE, HOLDING, OR SALE.

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