Bangkok--Feb 9--Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings (Thailand) Limited has today assigned a final National Long-term rating of ‘AA+(tha)’ to the THB2.0 billion three-year guaranteed debentures issued by Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) Company Limited (“MMTh”). The rating Outlook is Positive. The rating is based entirely on a full, irrevocable and unconditional guarantee by Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ of Japan (“BTMU”, rated International Long-term foreign currency ‘A-’ (A minus) with Positive Outlook).
In line with Fitch’s rating methodology, the International ‘A-’ (A minus) rating for BTMU is one notch below the Thai sovereign’s (rated International local currency ‘A’ with Stable Outlook). Hence, the guaranteed debentures are rated one notch below Thailand’s National rating of ‘AAA(tha)’. Fitch says that any changes in the International rating differential between BTMU and the Thai sovereign will affect the debentures’ National rating. Investors should note that a one notch change in the International rating could result in change of greater than one notch in the National rating.
The rating of the guarantor, BTMU, reflects Fitch’s opinion that there is an extremely high probability of support for the bank, from the Japanese government, should the need arise. The Positive Outlook primarily reflects a significant improvement in BTMU’s capital quality compared with the combined capital of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (“BTM”) and UFJ Bank (“UFJ”) at end-March 2005. A successful and fast integration of BTM’s and UFJ’s systems and operations would lead to higher ratings.
BTMU is a merged entity of BTM and UFJ and renamed BTMU on 1 January 2006. It followed the merger of Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group, the parent of BTM and Mitsubishi Trust, and UFJ Holdings, the parent of UFJ and UFJ Trust & Banking, in October 2005, to create Mitsubishi UFJ Financial group, the world’s largest banking group with assets of JPY200 trillion (around USD1.7trn).
MMTh is the sole Mitsubishi Motors Corporation’s (“MMC”) pick-up truck manufacturing base for global distribution and the sole manufacturer and distributor of MMC’s automotive products in Thailand, including pick-up trucks and passenger cars. MMTh enjoys a leading position in Thailand’s car export market, and is the third-largest pickup distributor locally. Its car exports accounted for 21% of Thailand’s car exports in 9M05, and its pickup sales made up 9% domestically. MMTh is a 99.8%-owned subsidiary of MMC.
Contact: Lertchai Kochareonrattanakul, Wasant Polcharoen, Vincent Milton, Bangkok, Tel : + 662 655 4755 ; Reiko Toritani, Tokyo, Tel: +81 3 3288 2673
Note to Editors: Fitch’s National ratings provide a relative measure of creditworthiness for rated entities in countries with sub- or low-investment grade international sovereign 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.
Fitch’s rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency’s public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch’s code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the ‘Code of Conduct’ section of this site. End.