New York, August 17, 2018 -- Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the ratings on the following notes
issued by Kodiak CDO II, Ltd.:
U.S.$338,000,000 Class A-1 Senior
Secured Floating Rate Notes Due 2042 (current balance of $6,032,382.71),
Upgraded to Aaa (sf); previously on October 25, 2017 Upgraded
to Aa2 (sf)
U.S.$53,000,000 Class A-2 Senior
Secured Floating Rate Notes Due 2042, Upgraded to Aa1 (sf);
previously on October 25, 2017 Upgraded to A1 (sf)
U.S.$80,000,000 Class A-3 Senior
Secured Floating Rate Notes Due 2042, Upgraded to Aa3 (sf);
previously on October 25, 2017 Upgraded to Baa1 (sf)
U.S.$81,000,000 Class B-1 Senior
Secured Floating Rate Notes Due 2042, Upgraded to B1 (sf);
previously on October 25, 2017 Upgraded to B3 (sf)
U.S.$5,000,000 Class B-2 Senior
Secured Fixed/Floating Rate Notes Due 2042, Upgraded to B1 (sf);
previously on October 25, 2017 Upgraded to B3 (sf)
Kodiak CDO II, Ltd., issued in June 2007, is
a collateralized debt obligation (CDO) backed mainly by a portfolio of
REIT trust preferred securities (TruPS).
RATINGS RATIONALE
The rating actions are primarily a result of the deleveraging of the Class
A-1 notes and an increase in the transaction's overcollateralization
(OC) ratios since October 2017.
The Class A-1 notes have paid down by approximately 66.0%
or $11.7 million since October 2017, using principal
proceeds from the redemption of the underlying assets and the diversion
of excess interest proceeds. Based on Moody's calculations,
the Class A-1, Class A-2, Class A-3,
and Class B OC ratios have improved to 5185.96%, 529.94%,
225.01%, and 139.02%, respectively,
from October 2017 levels of 1768.28%, 443.28%,
208.01% and 132.44%, respectively.
The deal has also benefited from improvement in the credit quality of
the underlying portfolio. According to Moody's calculations,
the weighted average rating factor (WARF) improved to 3548 from 4057 in
October 2017.
Methodology Underlying the Rating Action
The principal methodology used in these ratings was "Moody's Approach
to Rating TruPS CDOs," published in October 2016. Please
see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for
a copy of this methodology.
Factors that Would Lead to an Upgrade or Downgrade of the Ratings:
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: TruPS CDOs performance could be negatively
affected by uncertainty about credit conditions in the general economy.
Moody's has a stable outlook on the US banking and insurance sectors.
2) Portfolio credit risk: Credit performance of the assets collateralizing
the transaction that is better than Moody's current expectations
could have a positive impact on the transaction's performance.
Conversely, asset credit performance weaker than Moody's current
expectations could have adverse consequences on the transaction's
performance.
3) Deleveraging: One source of uncertainty in this transaction is
whether deleveraging from unscheduled principal proceeds and excess interest
proceeds will continue and at what pace. Note repayments that are
faster than Moody's current expectations could have a positive impact
on the notes' ratings, beginning with the notes with the highest
payment priority.
4) Exposure to non-publicly rated assets: The deal contains
a large number of securities whose default probability Moody's assesses
through credit scores derived using RiskCalc™ or credit estimates.
Because these are not public ratings, they are subject to additional
uncertainties.
Loss and Cash Flow Analysis:
Moody's applied a Monte Carlo simulation framework in Moody's
CDOROM™ to model the loss distribution for TruPS CDOs. The
simulated defaults and recoveries for each of the Monte Carlo scenarios
defined the reference pool's loss distribution. Moody's
then used the loss distribution as an input in its CDOEdge™ cash
flow model. CDOROM™ is available on www.moodys.com
under Products and Solutions -- Analytical models,
upon receipt of a signed free license agreement.
The key model inputs Moody's used in its analysis, such as
par, weighted average rating factor, and weighted average
recovery rate, are based on its methodology and could differ from
the trustee's reported numbers. In its base case, Moody's
analyzed the underlying collateral pool as having a performing par of
$312.8 million, defaulted par of $ 79.3
million, a weighted average default probability of 50.09%
(implying a WARF of 3548), and a weighted average recovery rate
upon default of 13.3%.
In addition to the quantitative factors Moody's explicitly models,
qualitative factors are part of rating committee considerations.
Moody's considers the structural protections in the transaction,
the risk of an event of default, recent deal performance under current
market conditions, the legal environment and specific documentation
features. All information available to rating committees,
including macroeconomic forecasts, inputs from other Moody's analytical
groups, market factors, and judgments regarding the nature
and severity of credit stress on the transactions, can influence
the final rating decision.
The portfolio of this CDO contains REIT TruPS that Moody's does
not rate publicly. For REIT TruPS that do not have public ratings,
Moody's REIT group assesses their credit quality using the REIT
firms' annual financials.
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 describes its loss and cash flow analysis in the section
"Ratings Rationale" of this press release.
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 credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to
each particular credit 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 credit rating action,
and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit 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.
Svetlana Zaitseva
Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Jian Hu
MD - Structured Finance
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653