Bangkok--2 Oct--Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings (Thailand) Limited has today downgraded Gulf Cogeneration Company Limited’s (GCC) guaranteed debentures to National Long-term ‘AA+(tha)’ from ‘AAA(tha)’. These include the three-year tranche of THB1.74bn, five-year tranche of THB1.16bn and 10-year tranche of THB2.9bn, maturing in April 2009, April 2011 and April 2016, respectively. The Outlook remains Stable. This follows the agency’s downgrade yesterday on Hypo Real Estate Holding AG’s (HRE Group) Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘A-’ (A minus) from ‘A’ and its subsidiary DEPFA Bank plc’s (DEPFA) Long-term foreign currency IDR to ‘A-’ (A minus) from ‘AA-’ (AA minus). The ratings of GCC’s debentures are based entirely on the irrevocable and unconditional guarantee of the principal and interest payments of the debentures by DEPFA. The current Long-term foreign currency IDR of DEPFA of ‘A-’ (A minus) is one notch below Thailand’s International Long-term local currency IDR of ‘A’. This, in turn, results in the National rating of the guaranteed debentures being one notch below Thailand’s sovereign National Long-term rating of ‘AAA(tha)’. Investors should note that a one-notch change in an International rating could result in a change of more than one notch in the debentures’ National rating. The rating actions follow HRE Group’s announcement that a new short-term multi-billion euro credit facility has been agreed with a consortium of German banks, which, in Fitch’s understanding, will be succeeded by a EUR35bn secured funding facility provided by the European Central Bank and backed by a guarantee from the Federal Republic of Germany. While the downgrade of DEPFA’s Individual rating to ‘F’ from ‘B’ reflects Fitch’s view that necessary external support has been provided to prevent the bank from running into liquidity problems, the Long-term IDR remains aided by indirect support from government authorities. While DEPFA's higher IDR and Individual rating previously reflected its stand-alone strength and separate funding, Fitch now believes that a distinction between the Long-term IDRs of the various group entities is no longer justified. Although the current market constraints with regard to rolling over short-term wholesale funding hit DEPFA first, it has become a concern for the whole group. Liquidity raised at holding company level will be channeled into subsidiaries as required, which will lead to closer operational integration of DEPFA with HRE Group. In addition, in Fitch's view, the high degree of integration of the German operating subsidiaries means that their stand-alone probability of default is strongly linked to the financial strength of HRE Group as a whole. Contacts: Obboon Thirachit, Lertchai Kochareonrattanakul, Vincent Milton, Bangkok, Tel: +662 655 4755; Matthew Taylor, London, +44 20 7417 4345. 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. Tassanee Mongkolrat Executive Secretary Administration Tel: 662 655 4755 Fax: 662 655 4939 www.fitchratings.com