Bangkok--28 Apr--Moody's Investors
Moody's Investors Service has assigned provisional (P)A3 long-term and (P)Prime-2 short-term foreign currency debt ratings to the planned USD2.5 billion Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) Programme of Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited (SCB).
The rating outlook is stable.
Assignments:
Issuer: Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited
USD2.5 billion EMTN Program: Assigned (P)A3 and (P)Prime-2
The rating is subject to the receipt of final documentation, with terms and conditions that do not deviate materially from the preliminary documents already reviewed by Moody's.
RATINGS RATIONALE
SCB can issue senior notes of any maturity under the programme, although the (P)A3/Prime-2 ratings will not immediately apply to any of the specific notes. Ratings on such notes are subject to our review of the terms and conditions set forth in the final prospectuses, supplements, or offering memoranda of the notes to be issued.
Furthermore, Moody's does not intend to assign a programme rating to:
(1) individual notes that are linked to the performance of another obligor (credit-linked notes)
(2) notes in which payment of the principal or interest is variable and contractually dependent on the occurrence of a non-credit-linked event or the performance of an index (non-credit-linked notes), except for notes whose principal and coupon payments are affected by standard sources of variation (See Moody's Special Comment, "Moody's Update on Rating Debt Obligations with Variable Promises," June 2009).
The senior notes will represent unsecured and unsubordinated obligations of SCB. The programme's terms and conditions contain a negative pledge.
SCB's provisional A3 foreign currency senior unsecured rating reflects its D+ bank financial strength rating (BFSR), which maps to a baseline credit assessment (BCA) of Baa3, and its systemic importance to the Thai banking sector.
As Thailand's fourth-largest bank by assets, Moody's believes that SCB's senior debt and deposit holders will benefit from the very high level of systemic support, leading to a three-notch uplift in its A3 long-term global local currency (GLC) deposit rating from its Baa3 BCA.
The provisional A3 rating -- which is set at the same level as its long-term GLC deposit rating (and one notch below Thailand's A2 foreign currency bond ceiling) -- assigned to these senior notes incorporates Moody's expectation of that support.
The bank's key shareholder (24%) is the Crown Property Bureau, which manages the Thai monarchy's properties.
Concerns over a supported bank's ability to source foreign currency often deters Moody's from rating foreign currency debt above the sovereign's foreign currency debt (Baa1 for Thailand).
However, the structure of SCB's foreign currency balance sheet is evidence that the bank has a low reliance on external funding (assets exceeding obligations).
In addition to SCB's own foreign currency deposits, the Thai government's strong and improving position on external payments has mitigated our concerns, allowing this rating to be set one notch above the Baa1 government debt rating for Thailand. This approach is in line with the guidelines discussed in Moody's February 2009 Special Comment titled, "Banks Dependent on Government Foreign Currency Resources for Support."
SCB's ratings are underpinned by (1) its status as one of the big four Thai banks; (2) the bank's success in building up its retail banking business; (3) its healthy profitability and strong capital adequacy.
However, the rating also takes into consideration the risks pertaining to the country's volatile political environment, the bank's high credit risk concentration and the weak (but improving) asset quality.
SCB reported net income of THB24 billion for 2010, 17% higher than 2009.
The increase was mainly due to (1) higher fee and service income, (2) higher net interest and dividend income, and (3) lower provisioning on the back of improving asset quality.
The bank reported 13% loan growth in 2010, and expects to achieve 10-12% for the full year 2011 - focusing on the corporate segment and auto hire purchase loans. NPLs decreased to 3.7% at end-2010 from 4.8% a year before. The bank reported Loan Loss Reserves to NPLs at 107%, which was still at a comfortable level. Reported Tier 1 CAR was 11.6% and total CAR was 15.5% at end-2010.
The last rating action on SCB was taken on 28 October 2010 when the outlook for SCB's foreign currency long-term deposit rating of Baa1 was changed to stable from negative, in line with the sovereign rating action.
The principal methodologies used in this rating were Bank Financial Strength Ratings: Global Methodology published in February 2007, and Incorporation of Joint-Default Analysis into Moody's Bank Ratings: A Refined Methodology published in March 2007.
SCB, headquartered in Bangkok, had assets of THB1,475 billion (USD49billion) as of end-2010.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Information sources used to prepare the credit rating are the following:
parties involved in the ratings, public information, and confidential and proprietary Moody's Investors Service information.
Moody's Investors Service considers the quality of information available on the issuer or obligation satisfactory for the purposes of assigning a credit rating.
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Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on Moodys.com for the last rating action and the rating history.
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