Sep. 18, 2009 (Business Wire) -- Fitch Ratings affirms KeyBank Real Estate Capital's (KBREC) CMBS servicer ratings as follows:
--Primary servicer rating at 'CPS1';
--Master servicer rating at 'CMS1';
--Special servicer rating at 'CSS2+'.
In addition, Fitch assigns KBREC a construction loan servicer rating of 'CCLS3+'.
The servicer rating affirmations reflect KBREC's strong, experienced management team, the financial resources of KBREC's parent KeyCorp and its commitment to commercial mortgage servicing, including its strong employee training program, and its continued commitment to technology. The primary servicer rating reflects KBREC's demonstrated ability to effectively service CMBS loans. The master servicer rating reflects KBREC's proven ability to report to CMBS trustees and oversee third party primary servicers. The special servicer rating reflects KBREC's continued ability to work out, manage and liquidate nonperforming loans and real estate owned (REO) properties in CMBS transactions.
The construction loan servicer rating reflects KBREC's extensive history of construction loan administration and servicing, its experienced and tenured management and staff, and the financial resources provided by KeyCorp. Fitch has changed the scale of its construction loan servicer ratings to the numeric scale used for CMBS servicer ratings. KBREC's previous construction loan servicer rating was 'Acceptable'.
As of May 31, 2009, KBREC's total commercial mortgage servicing portfolio consisted of 12,587 loans with a principal balance of $132 billion of which $92.2 billion comprised of 9,964 loans were CMBS. As of the same date, KBREC was named master servicer on 105 CMBS transactions, overseeing 27 primary servicers who serviced 1,211 loans totaling $11.7 billion. Also as of the same date, KBREC was named special servicer on 21 CMBS transactions totaling $13.8 billion and was actively special servicing 91 CMBS loans totaling $411.1 million and two REO properties valued at $2.7 million.
As of May 31, 2009, KBREC's total construction loan servicing portfolio consisted of 1,431 projects with an unpaid balance of $8.1 billion and unfunded commitments of $2.1 billion. At the same date, its third-party off-book construction servicing portfolio consisted of 37 projects with an unpaid balance of $974 million and unfunded commitments of $242 million.
Fitch rates commercial mortgage primary, master, special and construction loan servicers on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest rating. Within each of these rating levels, Fitch further differentiates ratings by plus (+) and minus (-) as well as the flat rating. For more information about Fitch commercial mortgage servicer ratings or rating criteria, refer to the report titled 'U.S. Commercial Mortgage Servicer Rating Criteria' dated June 19, 2009, which is available on Fitch's web site at 'www.fitchratings.com'.
Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, 'www.fitchratings.com'. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.
