Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are using a regional mall in Oklahoma City to dress up another highly leveraged offering of commercial mortgage bonds.
The two investment banks are marketing $809.45 million of notes backed by 69 loans secured by 106 properties, according to Fitch Ratings.
The deal, MSBAM Series 2016-C29, is characterized by more debt, relative to the value of the property securing it, than other recent Fitch rated transactions: The debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) and loan-to-value ratio (LTV), as measured by Fitch, are 1.15x and 107.8%, respectively.
But this leverage would be even higher were it not for the inclusion of a single loan that, while not formally rated, carries an investment grade “credit opinion” from Fitch of ‘A.’ That loan, backed by the Penn Square Mall, represents 5.8% of the total collateral pool; without it, the Fitch DSCR and LTV are 1.12x and 111.0%.
By comparison, the average DSCR of conduit commercial mortgage securitizations rated by Fitch so far this year is 1.17x; the average LTV of deals rated by Fitch this year is 108%.
The mall, which has over 140 shops on two stories over 1.1 million square feet, is also encumbered by a $103.5 million subordinate note; this note was securitized this year in a separate transaction dubbed MSCI 2016-PSQ.
Among other ratings criteria cited by Fitch in its presale report is the relative low concentration of pool assets: the top 10 loans comprise 41.1% of the pool, which is lower than the recent averages of 55.7% for deals rated by Fitch this year. A lower concentration tends to reduce risk, since a default on any one loan would have a proportionately lower impact on bondholders.
Fitch has provisionally assigned ‘AAA’ ratings to the deal’s super senior notes, which benefit from 30% credit enhancement; the senior so-called “junior A” tranche, which benefits from just 23.25% credit enhancement, is also rated ‘AAA.’
