Singapore, January 07, 2013 -- Moody's Investors Service has today adjusted the foreign currency (FC)
bond and local currency (LC) country risk ceilings for Malaysia.
The sovereign rating of the Government of Malaysia is unaffected by these
changes.
The change in ceilings mean that the highest rating that can be assigned
to a domestic issuer in Malaysia, or to a structured finance security
backed by local currency receivables, is now as follows:
1) The long-term FC bond ceiling was raised to A1 from A3;
2) The long-term FC deposit ceiling remains at A3;
3) The short-term FC bond and deposit ceilings also remains unchanged
at P-1; and
4) The long-term LC bond and deposit ceilings were lowered to A1
from Aa2;
RATINGS RATIONALE
Moody's decision to readjust the country ceilings for Malaysia is based
on the rating agency's assessment of moratorium risks given the country's
ability and willingness to service both its public and private cross-border
debt obligations.
Largely due to healthy current account surpluses, Malaysia has amassed
a substantial foreign exchange reserve buffer over the past decade and
especially since the global financial crisis. Simultaneously,
the government has continued to rely primarily on LC instruments for financing—96.5%
of direct government debt is denominated in Malaysian ringgit as of Q3
2012—and the growth of the private sector's FC indebtedness
has remained manageable. Thus, given ample reserve adequacy,
the imposition of a moratorium on foreign exchange in the event of a government
default is unlikely.
Since the complete dismantling of selective capital controls early last
decade and the subsequent liberalization of the exchange rate in 2005,
non-resident absorption of Malaysian government securities has
risen substantially. Over the same period, Malaysia has sustained
its role as the largest center for Islamic finance. According to
the Malaysia Securities Commission, two-thirds of total sukuk
outstanding globally as of end-June 2012 was issued in Malaysia.
Thus, Malaysia may be compelled to sustain capital account convertibility
in order to maintain its market share for sukuk issuance, as well
as ensure favorable financing conditions for the government.
METHODOLOGY
Moody's country ceilings capture externalities and event risks that arise
as a consequence of locating a business in a particular country and that
ultimately constrain domestic issuers' ability to service their debt obligations.
As such, the ceiling encapsulates elements of the economic,
financial, political, and legal risks in a country,
including political instability, the risk of government intervention,
the risk of systemic economic disruption, severe financial instability
risks, currency redenomination, and natural disasters among
other factors, that need to be incorporated into the ratings of
even the strongest domestic issuers. The ceiling caps the credit
rating of all issuers and transactions with material exposure to those
risks -- in other words, it affects all domestic issuers
and transactions other than those whose assets and revenues are predominantly
sourced from or located outside of the country, or which benefit
from an external credit support.
For a more detailed discussion of Moody's approach to country risk ceilings,
please see Moody's Rating Implementation Guidance entitled "Local-Currency
Country Risk Ceiling for Bonds and Other Local Currency Obligations",
published on 16 August 2012.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated
entity, obligation or credit satisfactory for the purposes of issuing
a rating.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it
uses in assigning a rating is of sufficient quality and from sources Moody's
considers to be reliable including, when appropriate, independent
third-party sources. However, Moody's is not
an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or validate
information received in the rating process.
Please see Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions on the Rating
Process page on www.moodys.com for further information on
the meaning of each rating category and the definition of default and
recovery.
Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for the last rating action and the rating history. The date on
which some ratings were first released goes back to a time before Moody's
ratings were fully digitized and accurate data may not be available.
Consequently, Moody's provides a date that it believes is
the most reliable and accurate based on the information that is available
to it. Please see the ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com
for further information.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has
issued the rating.
Christian de Guzman
Vice President - Senior Analyst
Sovereign Risk Group
Moody's Investors Service Singapore Pte. Ltd.
50 Raffles Place #23-06
Singapore Land Tower
Singapore 48623
Singapore
JOURNALISTS: (852) 3758 -1350
SUBSCRIBERS: (65) 6398-8308
Bart Oosterveld
MD - Sovereign Risk
Sovereign Risk Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service Singapore Pte. Ltd.
50 Raffles Place #23-06
Singapore Land Tower
Singapore 48623
Singapore
JOURNALISTS: (852) 3758 -1350
SUBSCRIBERS: (65) 6398-8308
Moody's Changes Ceilings of Malaysia