DBRS Assigns B (high) Rating to CIT Group Inc.’s Series C Notes, Trend Positive

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS) has today assigned its B (high) rating to the new Series C Notes issued by CIT Group Inc. (CIT or the Company). The trend on the rating is Positive. Today’s rating action does not impact the issuer rating of CIT, which remains at B (high) with a Positive trend.

The rating considers the secured position of the Series C Notes, which benefit from a second lien on substantially all U.S. assets of CIT that are not otherwise pledged to secure the borrowings of special purpose entities and the equity of foreign subsidiaries. Moreover, the Series C Notes rank pari passu with the existing second lien Series A Notes and Series C Notes. Given the aforementioned, the rating reflects DBRS’s view that recovery on the Series C Notes would be less than the first lien notes but greater than the unsecured debt.

Notes:
All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

The applicable methodologies are Rating Finance Companies Operating in the United States, which can be found on our website under Methodologies.

The sources of information used for this rating include publicly available company documents. DBRS considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating was of satisfactory quality.

Lead Analyst: Steven Picarillo
Approver: Alan G. Reid
Initial Rating Date: 17 May 2010
Most Recent Rating Update: 26 August 2011