OREANDA-NEWS. April 14, 2015. Fitch Ratings has upgraded Lohnbach Investment Partners GmbH's (Lohnbach) German Commercial Special Servicer Rating to 'CSS2' from 'CSS2-'.

Lohnbach specialises in the acquisition and servicing of German non-performing loans (NPLs) secured by mid-range commercial real estate or large-scale distressed asset portfolios on behalf of investors. The focus is on secondary or tertiary locations with high capital expenditure requirements.

The upgrade reflects Lohnbach's improved performance in terms of loan recoveries and staff training, as well as its continued sound due diligence and business plan approach.

Reasonable business stability and the ability to leverage on market relationships led to the acquisition of four asset mandates in 2014, expanding the servicer's breadth of experience. Stability is also reflected in a fairly low staff turnover with just one contract termination during the year, supporting knowledge retention. The Lohnbach senior management team averages over five years of company tenure.

Lohnbach continues to focus on the development of its highly qualified and experienced staff. Classroom training and conferences resulted in an average of 56.3 training hours in 2014, up from 41.4 hours in 2013.

Internal policies and procedures are consistently updated in line with the business activities, to ensure a high quality process is followed across the company. This is evidenced by the continued low number of recommendations from the annual internal audit.

Lohnbach covers a very niche market, with fairly limited competition and a high level of expertise requirements. For this, the servicer leverages on nearly 10 years of industry experience.

The servicer's thorough approach is also reflected in the work-out process and positive recoveries performance. In nearly 10 years of business, Lohnbach achieved an average recovery rate versus purchases price of 115.5%, whereas the rate against gross claim averaged 46.1%. In 2014 the servicer resolved a larger complex NPL with a recovery rate significantly above the 10-year average in just 16 months, considering the difficult nature of the asset.

As of December 2014 Lohnbach's overall assets under management (AUM) totalled EUR488.9m (EUR409.5m in 2013), comprising nine securitised NPLs with a gross book value (GBV) of EUR344.1m. Although the review focused on Lohnbach servicing activities up to December 2014, Fitch acknowledges that a new portfolio was boarded in January 2015.

Lohnbach does not benefit from the financial support of a rated parent company. Over the past three years net financial results have remained unstable. Fitch recognises that the acquisition of new mandates remains strategic to maintaining profitability in the longer term. However, this is mitigated by increasing advisory operating income, which complements the servicing activity, and by one of Lohnbach's investors sponsoring the company to source new asset mandates throughout 2014.

Lohnbach's business and company size are fairly small compared with other Fitch-rated peers. However, over the past two years the servicer has placed great emphasis on automating its platform, with systems that reduce operational risk, by improving quality checks and process speed. Lohnbach implemented the Abit and Windream softwares, two highly flexible and user-friendly applications, tailored for the management and administration of German NPLs which automatically catalogue written communications on the company's network, respectively.

The servicer has simultaneously upgraded from a physical server environment to a virtual one, reducing operating capacity risks through a bespoke, scalable cloud solution. Fitch sees these enhancements positively and appropriate for the servicer's business needs.

Fitch employed its global servicer rating criteria in analysing the servicer's operations and financial condition, including a comparison against similar German servicers as part of the review process.