Bangkok--3 Sep--Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings (Thailand) says 88% of its corporate National Ratings were unchanged in 2011, with the remainder being more upgrades than downgrades. Fitch expects ratings to broadly stabilise in 2012 as the agency forecasts an economic recovery with 5.5% GDP growth, driven by reconstruction spending, a rebound in manufacturing production, and government spending.
Fitch Thailand upgraded three nationally-rated corporate finance issuers (comprising corporates, banks and non-bank financial institutions) and downgraded one in 2011. All Fitch Thailand structured finance bond national ratings were affirmed. At end-2011, Fitch Thailand maintained 35 National Ratings on corporate finance issuers and three on structured finance bonds.
No defaults have been recorded by Fitch since the agency began assigning National Ratings in Thailand in 2001. The study includes all publicly rated long-term corporate finance issuers and also provides transition rates for structured finance transactions.
Fitch’s National ratings provide a relative measure of creditworthiness for rated entities in countries with relatively low international sovereign ratings and where there is demand for such ratings. The best risk within a country is rated ‘AAA’ and other credits are rated only relative to this risk. National ratings are designed for use mainly by local investors in local markets and are signified by the addition of an identifier for the country concerned, such as ‘AAA(tha)’ for National ratings in Thailand. Specific letter grades are not therefore internationally comparable
The report, ‘Fitch Thailand National Ratings 2011 Transition Study’ is available under Credit Market Research on Fitch’s International website or by clicking on the above link.