Bangkok--1 Nov--Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings has revised the rating Outlooks for Bank of Ayudhya Public Company Limited (BAY) and EASY BUY Public Company Limited (EB) to Negative from Stable. At the same time, Fitch has affirmed BAY's Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'A-' and National Long-Term Rating of 'AAA(tha)', as well as EB's National Long-Term Rating of 'AA+(tha)'. All other ratings of the issuers are not immediately affected by our action.
The revised Outlooks follow similar revisions in the Outlooks of their respective parents in the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG, A/Negative), namely the MUFG Bank, Ltd. (A/Negative) and ACOM CO., LTD. (A-/Negative), on 23 October 2019 (see "Fitch Revises MUFG's Outlook to Negative; Affirms Ratings").
KEY RATING DRIVERS
BAY's Long-Term IDR and National Long-Term Rating, and EB's National Long-Term Rating are driven by expectations that these entities would benefit from extraordinary parental support. BAY and EB play important roles for MUFG's operations in southeast Asia. Furthermore, both entities show evidence of high levels of parent shareholding and control, management and operational integration, and a record of ongoing financial support.
RATING SENSITIVITIES
Any changes in the ratings or credit profile at the parent level would similarly affect BAY's Long-Term IDR and National Long-Term Rating, and EB's National Long-Term Rating. Any changes in the National Long-Term Ratings of BAY and EB would have a similar effect on the debt ratings of the two financial institutions.
Any material weakening in the parents' propensity to provide extraordinary support to their respective subsidiaries could result in a ratings downgrade. For example, this could be indicated by a significant reduction in ownership, or in the levels of group control and integration. However, Fitch does not view this change in propensity as likely in the near term.
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