May CMBS Conduit Pipeline Building with Three Deals

Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo are first are marketing nearly $4 billion in commercial mortgage-backed securities via three conduits slated to price the first week of May.

Credit Suisse's deal, CSAIL 2015-C2, pools 117 commercial mortgages worth $1.4 billion that are secured by 160 properties, according to the Kroll Bond Ratings Agency.

The pool has heavy concentration of retail properties: 40%. The largest loan in the pool is a $95 million loan secured by Westfield Wheaton, a 1.6 million square foot regional mall and shopping center located in Wheaton, Md., approximately 10 miles northwest of Washington.

The top five loans also include 9200 and 9220 Sunset (2nd largest, 6.5%), Soho-Tribeca Grand Hotel Portfolio (3rd largest, 4.7%), Residence Inn Beverly Hills (4th largest, 3.5%) and Westfield Trumbull (5th largest, 2.5%).

Over half of the pool is comprised of loans that, while they amortize throughout their terms, repay most of the principal in a final balloon payment. The rest of the loans pay only interest, and no principal, for either part (26.7%) or all (22.9%) of their terms.

Kroll calculates the overall loan-to-value ratio of the trust at 104.7%. That's above than the LTVs of the 19 CMBS conduits it has rated in the last six months. Higher leverage implies lower borrower equity levels, greater default probability, and higher overall loss severity should a default occur.

Eight loans (12.7%) are secured by properties encumbered by additional, subordinate secured debt (7.7%) or permit future additional debt in the form of mezzanine financing (5%). This is below the average amount of existing debt for the CMBS conduits rated by Kroll over the past six months, which ranged from 6.6% to 46%.

Deutsche Bank and Cantor Fitzgerald's COMM 2015-CCRE 23 will offer $1.27 billion of commercial mortgage-backed securities, according to a deal prospectus issued by the bank.

The deal pools 83 loans that are secured by 220 properties. Over 60% of the loans pay only interest for either part (36.3%) or all (31.5%) of their terms.

Morningstar, Moody's Investors Service and DBRS assigned preliminary ratings to the deal. All three rate the senior tranche at triple-A. However, Moody's has assigned an Aa2 rating to the class A-M notes, which benefit from credit support of 22.6%. That’s two notches lower than DBRS and Morningstar. And Moody's is not rating any of the junior notes.

Deutsche Bank and Cantor were last in the CMBS market in mid-March with COMM 2015-CCRE22. The A-M notes of that deal, which benefit from 24% subordination, pay 115 basis points over swaps.

Wells Fargo is marketing $1.1 billion of commercial mortgage-backed securities via Wells Fargo Commercial Mortgage Trust 2015-C28, according a regulatory document.

At the beginning of March, Wells Fargo priced $927 million of commercial mortgage securities via its Wells Fargo Commercial Mortgage Trust 2015-C27 series, according to a pricing document.

The issuer paid swaps plus 87 basis points on the 10-year, super-senior tranche, near the average of the last three deals that priced in February. DBRS, Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Moody's Investor Service rated the senior bonds.

This article originally appeared in Structured Finance News
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