DBRS Assigns AAA (sf) Rating to Class A Secured Floating Rate Notes issued by Northern Blue 2009 S.A.

DBRS, Inc. (“DBRS”) has today assigned a rating of AAA (sf) to the Class A Secured Floating Rate Notes (the “Class A Notes”) for Northern Blue 2009 S.A. (the “Issuer”). The rating addresses the full and timely payment of interest and principal payable to the Class A Notes on or before the Final Maturity Date of June 2035. The €865,600,000 Class A Notes will be supported by the €308,900,000 Class B Notes. DBRS does not rate the Class B Notes.

The Issuer is a collateralized loan obligation (CLO) which closed in July 2009. The true sale transaction is collateralized by a portfolio of secured and unsecured corporate loans and other corporate debt obligations extended to European borrowers, mostly in Germany. Reinvestment of certain principal proceeds is permitted until the reinvestment period ends in September 2013. HSH Nordbank acts as the originator and servicer of the corporate loans.

The AAA (sf) rating of the Class A Notes is based on the assessment of the credit quality of the investments permitted under the terms of transaction documents and changes made to the transaction pursuant to amendments executed on 25 February 2011, which reflect the amendment of the transaction to comply with DBRS published criteria. DBRS conducted a rating mapping of HSH Nordbank’s internal risk score to DBRS ratings in order to determine the credit quality for investments permitted by Northern Blue 2009 S.A. The rating reflects a review of the eligibility criteria, reinvestment criteria and credit enhancements to withstand projected collateral loss rates under various cash flow stress scenarios.

The review of this transaction is based on information provided by the latest trustee report dated as of January 2011. The rating was disclosed to the Issuer and no amendments were made following the disclosure.

The principal public methodology is Rating Global High-Yield Loan Securitizations, Structured Loans and Tranched Credit Derivatives, which can be found on www.dbrs.com under Methodologies.

This is the first DBRS rating on this financial instrument. This rating concerns an existing financial instrument; the Class A Notes were originally issued in July 2009.

The sources of information used for this rating include the parties involved in the rating including but not limited to HSH Nordbank as originator and servicer. DBRS considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating was of satisfactory quality.

For additional information on DBRS European CLO and Tranched Credit Derivatives, please see European Disclosure Requirements, located at http://www.dbrs.com/research/237794.

Note:
All figures are in Euros unless otherwise noted.