Merit 2020-HILL -- Moody's assigns provisional ratings to seven CMBS classes of Merit 2020-HILL

Rating Action: Moody's assigns provisional ratings to seven CMBS classes of Merit 2020-HILL

Global Credit Research - 11 Aug 2020

$307.5 million of structured securities affected

New York, August 11, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service has assigned provisional ratings to seven classes of CMBS securities, issued by Merit 2020-HILL, Commercial Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2020-HILL:

Cl. A, Assigned (P)Aaa (sf) Cl. B, Assigned (P)Aa3 (sf) Cl. C, Assigned (P)A3 (sf) Cl. D, Assigned (P)Baa3 (sf) Cl. E, Assigned (P)Ba3 (sf) Cl. F, Assigned (P)B3 (sf)

Cl. X-CP*, Assigned (P)A2 (sf)

* Reflects interest-only classes

RATINGS RATIONALE

The certificates are collateralized by a single floating-rate, mortgage loan secured by the fee simple interests in 78 self-storage properties located across 23 states. Our ratings are based on the credit quality of the loan and the strength of the securitization structure. The mortgage loan is secured by the fee simple interests in 78 self-storage properties. In aggregate, there are 37,467 units that contain 4,600,773 SF of net rentable area. The largest property represents 5.5% of the mortgage allocated loan amount ("ALA"). The portfolio is geographically diverse as the 78 properties are located across 42 MSA's in 23 states. The largest state concentration is California, which represents 19.7% of the mortgage ALA. The portfolio's property-level Herfindahl score is 58.6, based on mortgage ALA. The portfolio reported a weighted average physical occupancy rate of 90.7% by net rentable area for the trailing twelve-month period ending on May 31, 2020. Moody's approach to rating this transaction involved the application of our Large Loan and Single Asset/Single Borrower CMBS and Moody's Approach to Rating Structured Finance Interest Only (IO) Securities. The rating approach for securities backed by a single loan compares the credit risk inherent in the underlying collateral with the credit protection offered by the structure. The structure's credit enhancement is quantified by the maximum deterioration in property value that the securities are able to withstand under various stress scenarios without causing an increase in the expected loss for various rating levels. In assigning single borrower ratings, we also consider a range of qualitative issues as well as the transaction's structural and legal aspects. The credit risk of commercial real estate loans is determined primarily by two factors: 1) the probability of default, which is largely driven by the DSCR, and 2) and the severity of loss in the event of default, which is largely driven by the LTV of the underlying loan. The first mortgage balance of $323,850,000 represents a Moody's LTV of 114.3%. The Moody's First Mortgage Actual DSCR is 2.70X and Moody's First Mortgage Actual Stressed DSCR is 0.88X. The financing is subject to an additional mezzanine loan totaling $57,150,000. The Moody's Total Debt LTV (inclusive of the mezzanine loan) is 134.5% while the Moody's Total Debt Actual DSCR is 2.01X and Moody's Total Debt Stressed DSCR is 0.75X. Moody's also grades properties on a scale of 0 to 5 (best to worst) and considers those grades when assessing the likelihood of debt payment. The factors considered include property age, quality of construction, location, market, and tenancy. The Property's quality grade is 2.31.