DBRS Morningstar Confirms Rating on Koromo S.A., acting on behalf and for the account of its Compartment 3

DBRS Ratings GmbH (DBRS Morningstar) confirmed its AAA (sf) credit rating on the Class A Notes issued by Koromo S.A., acting on behalf and for the account of its Compartment 3 (the Issuer).

The credit rating on the Class A Notes addresses the timely payment of scheduled interest and the ultimate repayment of principal by the legal maturity date in October 2033.

The credit rating confirmation follows an annual review of the transaction and is based on the following analytical considerations:
-- Portfolio performance, in terms of delinquencies and defaults, as of the September 2023 payment date;
-- Probability of default (PD), loss given default (LGD), and expected loss assumptions on the receivables;
-- Absence of revolving termination events; and
-- Current available credit enhancement to the Class A Notes to cover the expected losses assumed at their AAA (sf) rating level.

The Issuer is a public limited liability company (société anonyme) incorporated under the laws of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and is governed by Luxembourg’s Securitisation Law, acting as a special-purpose entity specifically incorporated for the purpose of this transaction.

The rated Class A Notes and the unrated Class B Notes are backed by a pool of new and used passenger vehicle loan receivables originated in the Federal Republic of Germany by Toyota Kreditbank GmbH (TKG). TKG also acts as servicer to the transaction. The transaction closed in October 2020 and includes a five-year revolving period where additional receivables may be added to the pool until October 2025, subject to the occurrence of an early amortisation event. No early amortisation event has occurred so far.

PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE
As of September 2023, loans two to three months in arrears represented 0.2% of the outstanding portfolio balance, the 90+-day delinquency ratio was 0.1%, and the cumulative default ratio stood at 0.4%.

PORTFOLIO ASSUMPTIONS AND KEY DRIVERS
DBRS Morningstar conducted an analysis of the current pool of receivables and, because of the transaction’s revolving period, maintained its base case PD and LGD assumptions at 2.1% and 39.7% at the B (low) (sf) rating level, respectively, considering potential portfolio migration based on replenishment criteria set forth in the transaction legal documents.

CREDIT ENHANCEMENT AND RESERVES
As of the September 2023 payment date, credit enhancement to the Class A Notes was 10.0%, unchanged from closing, since the transaction is still in the revolving period. The credit enhancement is provided by subordination of the junior notes.

The transaction benefits from a fully funded nonamortising general reserve of EUR 1 million. The general reserve provides liquidity support to the transaction.

Additionally, upon DBRS Morningstar’s downgrade of the servicer’s parent, Toyota Financial Services Corporation, below BBB or upon the dilution of the 100% share ownership of TKG by its parent, a commingling reserve will be funded.

BNP Paribas Frankfurt Branch acts as the account bank for the transaction. Based on DBRS Morningstar’s private rating on the account bank, the downgrade provisions outlined in the transaction documents, and other mitigating factors inherent in the transaction structure, DBRS Morningstar considers the risk arising from the exposure to the account bank to be consistent with the rating assigned to the Class A Notes, as described in DBRS Morningstar's "Legal Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions" methodology.

DBRS Morningstar’s credit rating on the Class A Notes addresses the credit risk associated with the identified financial obligations in accordance with the relevant transaction documents.

DBRS Morningstar’s credit ratings do not address nonpayment risk associated with contractual payment obligations contemplated in the applicable transaction documents that are not financial obligations.

DBRS Morningstar’s long-term credit ratings provide opinions on risk of default. DBRS Morningstar considers risk of defaults to be the risk that an issuer will fail to satisfy the financial obligations in accordance with the term under which a long-term obligation has been issued.

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, GOVERNANCE CONSIDERATIONS
There were no Environmental/Social/Governance factors that had a significant or relevant effect on the credit analysis.

A description of how DBRS Morningstar considers ESG factors within the DBRS Morningstar analytical framework can be found in the “DBRS Morningstar Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Risk Factors in Credit Ratings” at https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/416784 (July 4 2023).

DBRS Morningstar analysed the transaction structure in Intex DealMaker.

Notes:
All figures are in euros unless otherwise noted.

The principal methodology applicable to the credit ratings is the “Master European Structured Finance Surveillance Methodology” (6 October 2023); https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/421598.

Other methodologies referenced in this transaction are listed at the end of this press release.

DBRS Morningstar has applied the principal methodology consistently and conducted a review of the transaction in accordance with the principal methodology.

An asset and a cash flow analysis were both conducted. Due to the inclusion of a revolving period in the transaction, the analysis continues to consider potential portfolio migration based on replenishment criteria set forth in the transaction legal documents.

A review of the transaction legal documents was not conducted as the legal documents have remained unchanged since the most recent rating action.

For a more detailed discussion of the sovereign risk impact on Structured Finance credit ratings, please refer to “Appendix C: The Impact of Sovereign Ratings on Other DBRS Morningstar Credit Ratings” of the “Global Methodology for Rating Sovereign Governments” at: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/421590/.

The DBRS Morningstar Sovereign group releases baseline macroeconomic scenarios for rated sovereigns. DBRS Morningstar analysis considered impacts consistent with the baseline scenarios as set forth in the following report: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/384482.

The sources of data and information used for this credit rating include investor reports provided by TKG and loan-level data provided by the European DataWarehouse GmbH.

DBRS Morningstar did not rely upon third-party due diligence in order to conduct its analysis.

At the time of the initial credit rating, DBRS Morningstar was supplied with third-party assessments. However, this did not impact the credit rating analysis.

DBRS Morningstar considers the data and information available to it for the purposes of providing this credit rating to be of satisfactory quality.

DBRS Morningstar does not audit or independently verify the data or information it receives in connection with the credit rating process.

The last credit rating action on this transaction took place on 21 October 2022, when DBRS Morningstar confirmed its credit rating on the Class A Notes at AAA (sf).

The lead analyst responsibilities for this transaction have been transferred to Helvia Meana.

Information regarding DBRS Morningstar credit ratings, including definitions, policies, and methodologies, is available at www.dbrsmorningstar.com.

Sensitivity Analysis: To assess the impact of changing the transaction parameters on the credit rating, DBRS Morningstar considered the following stress scenarios for a worst-case pool composition, as compared with the parameters used to determine the credit rating:

-- Expected default: 2.1% at the B (low) (sf) credit rating level.
-- Expected recovery rate: 60.3% at the B (low) (sf) credit rating level.
-- LGD: 60.8% for the AAA (sf) scenario.

Scenario 1: A 25% increase in the expected default rate.
Scenario 2: A 50% increase in the expected default rate.
Scenario 3: A 25% increase in the LGD.
Scenario 4: A 25% increase in the expected default rate and a 25% increase in the LGD.
Scenario 5: A 50% increase in the expected default rate and a 25% increase in the LGD.
Scenario 6: A 50% increase in the LGD.
Scenario 7: A 25% increase in the expected default rate and a 50% increase in the LGD.
Scenario 8: A 50% increase in the expected default rate and a 50% increase in the LGD.

DBRS Morningstar concludes that the expected credit rating under the eight stress scenarios will be:
-- Class A Notes: AA (high) (sf), AA (sf), AA (high) (sf), AA (sf), AA (low) (sf), AA (sf), AA (low) (sf), A (sf)

For further information on DBRS Morningstar historical default rates published by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in a central repository, see: https://registers.esma.europa.eu/cerep-publication. For further information on DBRS Morningstar historical default rates published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in a central repository, see https://data.fca.org.uk/#/ceres/craStats.

This credit rating is endorsed by DBRS Ratings Limited for use in the United Kingdom.

Lead Analyst: Helvia Meana, Assistant Vice President
Rating Committee Chair: Alfonso Candelas, Senior Vice President
Initial Rating Date: 22 October 2020

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The credit rating methodologies used in the analysis of this transaction can be found at: http://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/about/methodologies.

-- Master European Structured Finance Surveillance Methodology (6 October 2023), https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/421598/master-european-structured-finance-surveillance-methodology.
-- Rating European Structured Finance Transactions Methodology (6 October 2023), https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/421599/rating-european-structured-finance-transactions-methodology.
-- Rating European Consumer and Commercial Asset-Backed Securitisations (19 October 2022),
https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/404212/rating-european-consumer-and-commercial-asset-backed-securitisations.
-- Legal Criteria for European Structured Finance Transactions (30 June 2023), https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/416730/legal-criteria-for-european-structured-finance-transactions.
-- Operational Risk Assessment for European Structured Finance Servicers (15 September 2023), https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/420572/operational-risk-assessment-for-european-structured-finance-servicers.
-- Operational Risk Assessment for European Structured Finance Originators (15 September 2023),
https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/420573/operational-risk-assessment-for-european-structured-finance-originators
-- DBRS Morningstar Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Risk Factors in Credit Ratings (4 July 2023), https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/416784/dbrs-morningstar-criteria-approach-to-environmental-social-and-governance-risk-factors-in-credit-ratings.

A description of how DBRS Morningstar analyses structured finance transactions and how the methodologies are collectively applied can be found at https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/278375.

For more information on this credit or on this industry, visit www.dbrsmorningstar.com or contact us at [email protected].