Bangkok--25 Sep--Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings has assigned Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited's (BBL; BBB+/Stable/bbb+) USD1.2 billion Basel III-compliant Tier 2 subordinated notes due September 2034 a final rating of 'BBB'.
The notes will be issued by BBL's Hong Kong branch under its global medium-term note programme.
The assignment of the final rating follows the receipt of final documents conforming to the information already received. The final rating is the same as the expected rating assigned on 8 September 2019.
KEY RATING DRIVERS
The Tier 2 notes are rated one notch below the anchor rating, which is BBL's Viability Rating (VR) of 'bbb+'. This reflects the notes' subordinated status and higher loss-severity risks relative to senior unsecured instruments. No additional notching has been applied as the notes neither have any going-concern loss-absorption features nor mandatory full write-down at non-viability.
RATING SENSITIVITIES
Any change to BBL's VR, would have a similar effect on the notes' ratings as that is the anchor rating from which the notes are notched down.
For full details on BBL's key rating drivers and sensitivities, see the most recent rating action commentary "Fitch Affirms Bangkok Bank at 'BBB+' and 'AA+(tha); Outlook Stable", published 12 April 2019 and available at https://www.fitchratings.com.
DATE OF RELEVANT COMMITTEE
06-Sep-2019
ESG CONSIDERATIONS
Unless otherwise disclosed in this section, the highest level of ESG credit relevance is a score of 3 - ESG issues are credit neutral or have only a minimal credit impact on the entity, either due to their nature or the way in which they are being managed by the entity.
For more information on our ESG Relevance Scores, visit www.fitchratings.com/esg.
Additional information is available on www.fitchratings.com