Munis

S&P stated lessors are confronted with the increasingly troubled financial health of airlines, which has led to a sharp drop in aircraft values and lease rates as well as an array of requests for deferrals or delayed payments on rental contracts.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of Aug. 28-Sept.3

The Dallas-based chain was forced to advance additional principal payments on its asset-backed notes after trailing 12-month sales fell below $1.5B.

The fitness chain weathered an initial round of COVID-19 closings in March to continue supporting investor payments on $1.8 billion of whole-biz securitization notes. But surging coronavirus spreads in its key markets could force a reversal of gym reopenings, subjecting the bonds to potential downgrades.

S&P lowered the ratings on 23 tranches of notes in the deals, affirmed eight others, and kept the other 40 notes on watch for potential downgrade. Twenty of the downgraded notes are on notice for potential future downgrades, as well.

“Since April, the decline in corporate credit has resulted in a significant number of downgrades among the assets underlying some CLOs,” a Moody’s press release stated on Wednesday.

In a report issued Tuesday, the ratings agency notes that 1,287 companies as of April 28 faced prospects of potential debt and issuer downgrades, impacted by the coronavirus outbreak and a virtual shutdown of the global economy this spring.

A $425 million franchise-fee securitization sponsored by TGI Fridays has taken another ratings hit because of the 796-store chain’s increasingly poor financial performance, now magnified by COVID-19 stresses.

Fitch Ratings on Tuesday sharply downgraded all of Hertz Global Holdings’ outstanding asset-backed bonds, amid growing doubts that the rental car company can pay off the notes in the event of a COVID-19 pandemic-driven bankruptcy.

An indefinite closure of New York retail businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic added credit pressure on revenue bonds issued for the state’s largest mall.