Bangkok--29 Mar--Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings (Thailand) Limited has today affirmed Central American Bank for Economic Integration’s (CABEI) THB2.374bn senior unsecured bonds, due 2017, at National Long-term ‘AAA(tha)’. This follows the agency’s affirmation of CABEI’s Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘A-’ with Stable Outlook and its Short-term IDR at ‘F2’.
The ratings reflect CABEI’s preferred creditor status and privileges conferred on it by its member countries, as well as its solid fundamentals, including a strong capital base, adequate asset quality and an established track record of sustainable profitability. The ratings are constrained by the volatile economic environments in which the institution operates, its significant loan concentration and the member countries’ creditworthiness. The ratings also factor in a relatively high average exposure to the private sector and increasing past due loans on loans to private sector. Downward pressure on the ratings could arise from further deterioration in CABEI’s asset quality and an unexpected decrease of its capital ratios.
CABEI is a Central American multilateral development bank based in Honduras. It is not subject to local regulation and is immune from taxation. It is currently 59%-owned by its so-called five founding member states - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The remaining shares belong to other non-regional members: Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Taiwan, Spain, Dominican Republic and Panama. CABEI's objective is to fund development projects in Central America by channeling medium- and long-term foreign currency resources to public and private institutions.
Application criteria “Multilateral Development Banks: Rating Criteria and Industry Review”, dated 15 June 2005, and “National Rating-Methodology Update” dated 18 December 2006, are available on www.fitchratings.com.
Fitch has made major improvements to its credit research on EMEA and AsiaPac corporates. To view these improvements, visit our 'Clear Thinking' web page at http://clearthinking.fitchratings.co.uk/Index.html
Contact: Patchara Sarayudh, Vincent Milton, Bangkok +662 655 4755; Franklin Santarelli, New York +1 212 908 0739.
Note to Editors: 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.
Additional information is available at www.fitchratings.com.
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