Fitch Ratings Affirms Wheels' Ratings; Outlook Stable.CHICAGO -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. affirms Wheels Inc.'s (Wheels) ratings as follows: --Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR IDR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Indonesian Rupiah. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ) 'A'; --Short -term IDR 'F1'; --Commercial paper 'F1'. The Rating Outlook is Stable. Fitch's affirmation A solemn and formal declaration of the truth of a statement, such as an Affidavit or the actual or prospective testimony of a witness or a party that takes the place of an oath. An affirmation is also used when a person cannot take an oath because of religious convictions. primarily recognizes the company's relatively stable operating performance, and established competitive position within the fleet leasing market. This is further supported by Wheels customer service orientation and focused information technology capabilities. Rating concerns include the effect of economic downturn on Wheels' clients and reliance on secured sources of funding. Fitch views the company's relative stability as a strength and Wheels has been successful in attracting new clients from competitors. This should translate into growing revenues and profitability over time. Fitch expects that in the current environment, clients will keep vehicles longer, which provides further opportunities for Wheels transactional services such as maintenance, collision, fuel, and registration programs. Fitch expects fleet growth to be minimal over the near team as clients are keeping their vehicles longer and cutting back due to current economic environment. Fitch also considered Wheels exposure to the domestic OEMs. The company has mitigated risk by reducing transaction times and requiring review and secondary approvals on vehicle orders. Furthermore, Wheels has diversified diversified (di·verˑ·s its vehicle suppliers over the past few years, thus the elimination of a manufacturer would likely generate minor and temporary operational issues. Fitch also regards Wheels ability to fund itself without serious interruption INTERRUPTION. The effect of some act or circumstance which stops the course of a prescription or act of limitation's. 2. Interruption of the use of a thing is natural or civil. as a strength. Although the company is reliant on secured sources of funding, mainly asset-backed securitization Securitization The process of creating a financial instrument by combining other financial assets and then marketing them to investors. Notes: Mortgage backed securities are a perfect example of securitization. May also be spelled as "securitisation. , Fitch believes the company's ability to fund itself stems from the company's ability to generate stable earnings and cash flow. Under a collateral trust and security agreement, Wheels non-securitization debt is secured ratably by assets of the Company. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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