New York, March 31, 2011 -- Moody's Investors Service announced today that it has upgraded the ratings
of five Composite Obligations and six classes of notes issued by ZAIS
Investment Grade Limited VI. The classes of notes affected by today's
rating actions are as follows:
U.S. $206,000,000 Class A-1 Senior
Secured Floating Rate Notes (current balance: $111,706,823),
Upgraded to A1 (sf); previously on September 9, 2009 Downgraded
to Ba1 (sf)
U.S. $54,750,000 Class A-2a Senior
Secured Floating Rate Notes, Upgraded to Ba1 (sf); previously
on September 9, 2009 Downgraded to Caa1 (sf)
U.S. $8,250,000 Class A-2b Senior
Secured Fixed Rate Notes, Upgraded to Ba1 (sf); previously
on September 9, 2009 Downgraded to Caa1(sf)
U.S. $21,000,000 Class A-3 Senior
Secured Floating Rate Notes, Upgraded to B1 (sf); previously
on September 9, 2009 Downgraded to Caa3 (sf)
U.S. $6,400,000 Class B-1 Senior
Secured Floating Rate Notes, Upgraded to Caa3 (sf); previously
on September 9, 2009 Downgraded to Ca (sf)
U.S. $36,600,000 Class B-2 Senior
Secured Fixed Rate Notes, Upgraded to Caa3 (sf); previously
on September 9, 2009 Downgraded to Ca (sf)
U.S. $1,250,000 Type II Composite Obligations,
Upgraded to Baa3 (sf); previously on September 9, 2009 Downgraded
to Caa3 (sf)
U.S. $3,000,000 Type III Composite Obligations,
Upgraded to Caa2 (sf); previously on September 9, 2009 Downgraded
to Ca (sf)
U.S. $10,500,000 Type IV Composite Obligations,
Upgraded to Caa2 (sf); previously on September 9, 2009 Downgraded
to Ca (sf)
U.S. $15,000,000 Type V Composite Obligations,
Upgraded to Caa2 (sf); previously on September 9, 2009 Downgraded
to Ca (sf)
U.S. $8,600,000 Type VI Composite Obligations,
Upgraded to Caa2 (sf); previously on September 9, 2009 Downgraded
to Ca (sf)
RATINGS RATIONALE
According to Moody's, the rating actions taken on the notes and
composite obligations result primarily from the delevering of the Class
A-1 Notes and the improvement of the credit quality of the portfolio.
The Class A-1 Notes have been paid down by approximately $72.5
million since the last rating action in September 2009. As a result
of the delevering, the overcollateralization ratios have increased
since that time. As of the latest trustee report dated February
16, 2011, the Class A and Class B overcollateralization ratios
are reported at 126.32% and 103.56%,
respectively, versus August 2009 levels of 107.11%
and 92.31%, respectively and currently the Class A
OC is in compliance. The Class B-1 and B-2 notes
are receiving their interest payments but a deferred interest balance
is still outstanding on the Notes and will only be paid down once all
the OC and IC tests are passing.
Moody's also notes that the deal has benefited from improvement in the
credit quality of the underlying portfolio since the rating action in
September 2009. Based on the February 2011 trustee report,
the weighted average rating factor is 2276 compared to 2704 in August
2009. The deal also experienced a decrease in defaults.
In particular, the dollar amount of defaulted securities has decreased
to about $86 million from approximately $128 million in
August 2009.
ZAIS Investment Grade Limited VI. is a collateralized debt obligation
backed primarily by a portfolio of CLOs, and ABS CDOs.
The principal methodology used in this rating was "Moody's Approach to
Rating SF CDOs" published in November 2010.
Moody's applied the Monte Carlo simulation framework within CDOROMv2.6
to model the loss distribution for SF CDOs. Within this framework,
defaults are generated so that they occur with the frequency indicated
by the adjusted default probability pool (the default probability associated
with the current rating multiplied by the Resecuritization Stress) for
each credit in the reference. Specifically, correlated defaults
are simulated using a normal (or "Gaussian") copula model that applies
the asset correlation framework. Recovery rates for defaulted credits
are generated by applying within the simulation the distributional assumptions,
including correlation between recovery values. Together,
the simulated defaults and recoveries across each of the Monte Carlo scenarios
define the loss distribution for the reference pool.
Once the loss distribution for the collateral has been calculated,
each collateral loss scenario derived through the CDOROM loss distribution
is associated with the interest and principal received by the rated liability
classes via the CDOEdge cash-flow model . The cash flow
model takes into account the following: collateral cash flows,
the transaction covenants, the priority of payments (waterfall)
for interest and principal proceeds received from portfolio assets,
reinvestment assumptions, the timing of defaults, interest-rate
scenarios and foreign exchange risk (if present). The Expected
Loss (EL) for each tranche is the weighted average of losses to each tranche
across all the scenarios, where the weight is the likelihood of
the scenario occurring. Moody's defines the loss as the shortfall
in the present value of cash flows to the tranche relative to the present
value of the promised cash flows. The present values are calculated
using the promised tranche coupon rate as the discount rate. For
floating rate tranches, the discount rate is based on the promised
spread over Libor and the assumed Libor scenario.
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 rating action today factors in a number of sensitivity analyses
and stress scenarios, discussed below. Results are 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 Caa3 bucket notched down to Ca:
Class A-1: -1
Class A-2a: -2
Class A-2b: -2
Class A-3: -3
Class B-1: -2
Class B-2: -2
Type II Combo: -1
Type III Combo: -2
Type IV Combo: -2
Type V Combo: -2
Type VI Combo: -2
Moody's Caa3 bucket notched up to Caa1:
Class A-1: 0
Class A-2a: 0
Class A-2b:0
Class A-3:0
Class B-1: 0
Class B-2: 0
Type II Combo: 0
Type III Combo: 0
Type IV Combo: +1
Type V Combo:+1
Type VI Combo: +1
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 information.
Moody's Investors Service considers the quality of information available
on the issuer or obligation 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
Sange Lama
Associate Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
New York
Leon Mogunov
VP - Senior Credit Officer
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 six classes of notes and five composite obligationsissued by ZAIS Investment Grade Limited VI, Ltd., an ABS CDO