Morningstar DBRS Assigns Credit Ratings on Bojangles Issuer, LLC Series 2025-1 and Confirms Credit Rating on Bojangles Issuer, LLC Series 2024-1

DBRS, Inc. (Morningstar DBRS) assigned credit ratings to the classes of notes issued by Bojangles Issuer, LLC as follows:

CREDIT RATING RATIONALE/DESCRIPTION
The Credit Ratings are based on Morningstar DBRS` review of the following analytical considerations:

(1) The Company's scale, established brand within the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) space, and franchise business model, with over $1.9 billion in systemwide sales as of 2Q 2025.

(2) The Company's long track record of growth, with system-wide sales and restaurant count consistently increasing for over 35 years;

(3) Favorable momentum in unit economics with Average Unit Volumes (AUV) climbing over the past 5 years with AUV climbing to $2.307M as of Q2 2025.

(4) Diversified product offerings with broad daypart, menu, and destination mix.

(5) Long average franchisee tenure of 19 years, with 93% of franchised restaurants owned and operated by franchisees with 5+ years in the system.

(6) Morningstar's DBRS's operational review of Bojangles Restaurants, Inc. as the manager.

(7) A committed Back-Up Manager in FTI Consulting Inc. in place at the transaction's closing.

(8) No growth assumptions in the cash flow scenarios, along with no recovery assumed from applied cash flow stresses for the life of the transaction.

(9) The structural features of the transaction such as the senior interest reserve account, the cash trap reserve account, and the rapid amortization trigger, which help to accelerate the pay down of balance of the Notes upon deterioration in business performance;

(10) Legal analysis of the structure; separation of the assets from the operating company, non-consolidation, true-contribution opinions;

(11) DBRS Morningstar's review of the management fee, which is a critical component to the transaction especially given its long tenor.

(12) The Transaction assumptions consider Morningstar DBRS' baseline macroeconomic scenarios for rated sovereign economies, available in its commentary, "Baseline Macroeconomic Scenarios for Rated Sovereigns March 2025 Update," published on March 26, 2025. These baseline macroeconomic scenarios replace Morningstar DBRS' moderate and adverse coronavirus pandemic scenarios, which were first published in April 2020.

(13) The cash flow analysis which shows a breakeven cash flow reduction threshold of 49.02% for senior notes, meeting the BBB (sf) rating Breakeven Hurdle of 48% for this transaction. Morningstar DBRS assumes all rated notes to be drawn to maximum capacity.

Morningstar DBRS' credit rating on the securities referenced herein addresses the credit risk associated with the identified financial obligations in accordance with the relevant transaction documents. The associated financial obligations are the related Senior Notes Quarterly Interest Amount, the related Senior Notes Interest Shortfall Amount, and the related Outstanding Principal Amount for each class of rated notes.

Morningstar DBRS' credit rating does not address nonpayment risk associated with contractual payment obligations contemplated in the applicable transaction document(s) that are not financial obligations. For example, the interest on any related Senior Notes Interest Shortfall Amount for each class of rated notes, the Senior Notes Quarterly Post-ARD Additional Interest for each class of rated notes, the Make-Whole Prepayment Consideration for each class of rated notes, and the DDN Non-Draw Fee and DDN Undrawn Interest on the Series 2025-1 Class A-2-II Notes.

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

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE CONSIDERATIONS

There were no Environmental/Social/Governance factor(s) that had a significant or relevant effect on the credit analysis.

A description of how Morningstar DBRS considers ESG factors within the Morningstar DBRS analytical framework can be found in the Morningstar DBRS Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors in Credit Ratings (May 16, 2025) https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/454196.

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

The principal methodologies applicable to the credit ratings are

Rating U.S. Structured Finance Transactions (Appendix XV: U.S Whole Business Securitizations) (March 10, 2025) https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/449616.

Morningstar DBRS Master U.S. ABS Surveillance (June 17, 2025) https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/456340.

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

The credit rating was initiated at the request of the rated entity.

The rated entity or its related entities did participate in the credit rating process for this credit rating action.

Morningstar DBRS had access to the accounts, management and other relevant internal documents of the rated entity or its related entities in connection with this credit rating action.

This is a solicited credit rating.

For more information on Morningstar DBRS' policy regarding the solicitation status of credit ratings, please refer to the Credit Ratings Global Policy, which can be found in the Morningstar DBRS Understanding Ratings section of the website: https://dbrs.morningstar.com/understanding-ratings

Please see the related appendix for additional information regarding the sensitivity of assumptions used in the credit rating process.

DBRS, Inc.
140 Broadway, 43rd Floor
New York, NY 10005 USA
Tel. +1 212 806-3277

The credit rating methodologies used in the analysis of this transaction can be found at: https://dbrs.morningstar.com/about/methodologies.

Interest Rate and Currency Stresses for Global Structured Finance Transactions (September 3, 2025)
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/461958

Operational Risk Assessment for U.S. ABS Originators and Servicers (March 26, 2025)
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/450709

Legal Criteria for U.S. Structured Finance (December 3, 2024)
https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/444064

A description of how Morningstar DBRS analyses structured finance transactions and how the methodologies are collectively applied can be found at: https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/417279.

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