OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has assigned an 'Asf' rating to STARTS (Ireland) Public Limited Company's Series 2015-3 CNY320m fixed-rate limited recourse secured notes due 2018. The Outlook is Stable. This is a transaction of repackaged notes issued outside Japan and backed by US dollar-denominated notes issued by Huarong Finance II Co., Ltd. and guaranteed by China Huarong International Holdings Limited.

KEY RATING DRIVERS
The rating reflects the first-to-default risk of the two risk-presenting entities in this transaction. The referenced risks are: the charged assets; the notes (rated 'A') issued by Huarong Finance II Co., Ltd., the payment of which is the ultimate responsibility of China Huarong Asset Management Co., Ltd. (China Huarong, A/Stable); and the swap counterparty, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC, AA-/Stable/F1+) . The rating also reflects the sound legal structure of the transaction.

The Stable Outlook is driven by those of the Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) on HSBC and China Huarong.

At closing, the issuer pays the note proceeds in yuan to the swap counterparty and invests the received amount in US dollars in the charged assets. The payment of the notes' principal and interest is backed by payments from the swap counterparty in exchange for the cash flow from the charged assets.

RATING SENSITIVITIES
The rating is sensitive to rating migration of the two risk-presenting entities. A downgrade of either of the two risk-presenting entities would likely result in a downgrade to this transaction.

DUE DILIGENCE USAGE
No third party due diligence was provided or reviewed in relation to this rating action.

DATA ADEQUACY
The risk presenting entities have ratings from Fitch. Fitch has relied on the practices of the relevant Fitch groups to assess the entity information.

Overall, Fitch's assessment of the entity information relied upon for the agency's rating analysis according to its applicable rating methodologies indicates that it is adequately reliable.

The publication of a Representations, Warranties and Enforcement Mechanisms appendix is not required for this transaction.