TEXT-Fitch:Mall atrophy continuing to pressure U.S. retail CMBS

Sept 07 - Several seasoned U.S. CMBS deals contain retail mall loans which are now seeing losses in excess of the outstanding loan balance of late, according to Fitch Ratings.

Fitch maintains a Stable Outlook for the CMBS retail sector as a whole. That said, Fitch is cautious of mall performance, particularly among second and third tier malls. Distressed malls are feeling the effects of increased competition, downsizing of tenants, and consolidation of anchor stores. As a result, many markets can no longer support multiple malls.

Fitch has been unable to rate some recent newly issued CMBS transactions with large mall concentrations, more specifically in the single borrower or single asset sector.

Additional information is available in Fitch's weekly e-newsletter, 'U.S. CMBS Market Trends', which also contains recent rating actions and an overview of newly released CMBS research, including Fitch presales and Focus reports. The link below enables market participants to sign up to receive future issues of the E-newsletter:

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