Executive Summary
This document describes KBRA’s rating methodology for rating marine container leasing asset-backed securities (ABS) transactions. Container leasing is a mature and cyclical industry that is highly correlated to world trade. KBRA’s ratings of container leasing securitizations reflect KBRA’s assessment of the leasing company or manager, the container fleet and leases included in the securitization, and a legal and structural analysis of the transaction.
The securitized assets in container leasing ABS are steel intermodal containers (or boxes), as well as the lease contracts between the container leasing company and various shipping lines. In an ABS transaction, the container leasing company sells the containers to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that upon purchase owns the containers. The ABS noteholders maintain a first priority security interest in the collateral along with all current and future lease cashflow and sales proceeds. In almost all cases, the container…