Cutwater 2014-II, Ltd. -- Moody's upgrades ratings on two classes of CLO notes issued by Cutwater 2014-II, Ltd.; actions conclude review

Rating Action: Moody's upgrades ratings on two classes of CLO notes issued by Cutwater 2014-II, Ltd.; actions conclude review

Global Credit Research - 25 Jan 2021

New York, January 25, 2021 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has upgraded the ratings on the following notes issued by Cutwater 2014-II, Ltd. (the "CLO" or "Issuer"):

U.S.$25,600,000 Class B-R Senior Secured Deferrable Floating Rate Notes due 2027 (the "Class B-R Notes"), Upgraded to Aa1 (sf); previously on December 8, 2020 Aa3 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade

U.S.$23,300,000 Class C-R Senior Secured Deferrable Floating Rate Notes due 2027 (the "Class C-R Notes"), Upgraded to Baa1 (sf); previously on December 8, 2020 Baa2 (sf) Placed Under Review for Possible Upgrade

The Class B-R Notes and the Class C-R Notes are referred to herein, collectively, as the "Upgraded Notes."

These actions conclude the reviews for upgrade initiated on December 8, 2020 on the Class B-R and Class C-R Notes issued by the CLO. The CLO, originally issued in January 2015 and partially refinanced in March 2017, is a managed cashflow CLO. The notes are collateralized primarily by a portfolio of broadly syndicated senior secured corporate loans. The transaction's reinvestment period ended in January 2019.

RATINGS RATIONALE

The upgrade actions taken on the Upgraded Notes are primarily a result of applying Moody's revised CLO assumptions described in "Moody's Global Approach to Rating Collateralized Loan Obligations" published in December 2020. The primary changes to the modeling assumptions include the analytical treatment of corporate obligors whose ratings are on review downgrade or assigned a negative outlook. Specifically, we now adjust the obligor's Moody's Default Probability Rating down by one notch if the obligor's rating is on review for possible downgrade and we make no adjustments if the obligor's rating has a negative outlook. Based on these updates, Moody's calculated WARF on the portfolio is now 3828 compared the the WARF of 4383 as reported by the trustee in the January 2021 report[1].

The upgrade actions are also a result of deleveraging of the senior notes and an increase in the transaction's over-collateralization (OC) ratios since July 2020. The Class A-1-R Notes have been paid down by approximately 44.8% or $47.8 million since July 2020. Based on the trustee's January 2021 report[2], the OC ratios for the Class A-2-R, Class B-R, Class C-R and Class D Notes are reported at 157.52%, 130.40%, 112.73% and 99.15%, respectively, versus July 2020[3] levels of 143.53%, 122.51%, 108.09% and 96.78%, respectively.