Sao Paulo, May 06, 2013 -- Moody's América Latina has affirmed the MQ1 Investment Manager
Quality assessment of Santander Brasil Asset Management DTVM S.A.
(Santander Brasil Asset). The MQ1 assessment reflects Moody's
view of the asset manager's investment management quality and control
environment as excellent. Santander Brasil Asset is a direct wholly-owned
subsidiary of Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A. (GLC bank deposit
rating Baa1, stable), and the sixth largest asset manager
in Brazil, with BRL118.1 billion in total assets under management,
as of March 31, 2013.
ASSESSMENT RATIONALE
Santander Brasil Asset's MQ1 assessment reflects its disciplined
investment decision-making process, its effective risk management
controls, the superior risk-adjusted performance of its fixed
income funds and the manager's strong market position. Also
supporting the MQ1 assessment is the support and oversight of its parent,
Banco Santander (Brasil). Moody's view the main challenges
for Santander Brasil Asset to be returning to and maintaining positive
net asset flows and retaining its key employees, as the company
experienced a relatively high employee turnover in recent years.
Santander Brasil Asset's investment performance has been solid and
the funds have a very strong risk-adjusted returns and have consistently
met their risk-return objectives. The fixed income funds
have outperformed both global and local benchmarks, as well as most
of local peers. The company's multimarket and equity funds
have generally outperformed their respective benchmarks, although
have not consistently outperformed peers. Considering that fixed
income is the most representative fund category for Santander Brasil Asset,
Moody's views the company's investment performance to be strong
and supportive of its MQ1 assessment.
Moody's noted that Santander Brasil Asset's financial flexibility
is strong and benefits from the full financial support provided by the
parent company, Banco Santander (Brasil) (GLC Baa1, stable),
as well as the bank's broad distribution and significant client-base,
with over 27 million clients and more than 2,400 branches.
Santander Brasil Asset is a core unit of Banco Santander, and its
high level of integration with Santander's local and global operations
is also viewed positively for the assessment.
Santander Brasil Asset's MQ1 assessment would face downward pressure
if turnover of portfolio managers and other key employees show signs of
returning to elevated levels seen in 2010-2012 or if positive fund
flows are not maintained.
Headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil, Santander Brasil
Asset is the asset management firm and wholly-owned subsidiary
of Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A. As of March 31, 2013,
its total assets under management amounted to BRL118.1 billion
(US$58.3 billion). As of December 2012, Banco
Santander (Brasil) consolidated assets totaled BRL447 billion and shareholders'
equity was BRL47.7 billion.
NOTE: Moody's Investment Manager Quality assessments do not indicate
a company's ability to pay a fixed financial obligation or satisfy contractual
financial obligations, either in its own right or any that may have
been entered into through actively managed portfolios. Also,
the assessments are not intended to consider the prospective performance
of a portfolio, mutual fund or other investment vehicle with respect
to appreciation, volatility of net asset value, or yield.
The principal methodology used in this assessment was "Moody's Approach
to Investment Manager Quality (MQ) Assessments of Asset Managers",
published in August 2011. Please see the Credit Policy page on
www.moodys.com.br for a copy of this methodology.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Information sources used to prepare the assessment are the following:
parties involved in the assessment and public information.
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated entity,
obligation or credit satisfactory for the purposes of issuing an assessment.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it uses
in assigning an assessment 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 assessment process.
The assessment has been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated
agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.
Please see the assessments disclosure page on www.moodys.com.br
for general disclosure on potential conflicts of interests.
Moody's America Latina, Ltda. may have provided Other Permissible
Service(s) to the rated entity or its related third parties within the
12 months preceding the assessment. Please see the special report
"Services provided to entities rated by Moody's America Latina,
Ltda." on our website www.moodys.com.br for
further information.
Entities rated by Moody's America Latina Ltda. (and the rated entities'
related parties) may also receive products/services provided by parties
related to Mood's America Latina, Ltda. engaging in credit
ratings activities. Please go to www.moodys.com.br
for a list of entities receiving products/services from these related
entities and the products/services received. This list is updated
on a quarterly basis.
The date of the last Action was on April 5th, 2010, when Moody's
affirmed its MQ1 Investment Manager Quality assessment.
Moody's assessments are constantly monitored, unless designated
as point-in-time assessment in the initial press release.
All Moody's assessments are reviewed at least once during every 12-month
period.
For assessments issued on a program, series or category/class of
debt, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures
in relation to each assessment of a subsequently issued bond or note of
the same series or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for
which the assessments are derived exclusively from existing assessments
in accordance with Moody's practices. For assessments issued on
a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory
disclosures in relation to the action on the support provider and in relation
to each particular action for securities that derive their assessments
from the support provider's assessment. For provisional assessment,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to the provisional assessment assigned, and in relation to a definitive
assessment that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the
debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have
not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive assessment in a
manner that would have affected the assessment. For further information
please see the assessment tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective
issuer on www.moodys.com.br.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this action, and whose assessments
may change as a result of this action, the associated regulatory
disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to
this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable
to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity,
Disclosure from rated entity.
Please see assessment tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com.br
for the last action and the assessment history. The date on which
some assessments were first released goes back to a time before Moody's
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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 assessments disclosure page on our website
www.moodys.com.br for further information.
Please see Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions on the Assessment Process
page on www.moodys.com.br for further information
on the meaning of each assessment category and the definition of default
and recovery.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the assessment.
Diego Belia Kashiwakura
Asst Vice President - Analyst
Managed Investments Group
Moody's America Latina Ltda.
Avenida Nacoes Unidas, 12.551
16th Floor, Room 1601
Sao Paulo, SP 04578-903
Brazil
JOURNALISTS: 800-891-2518
SUBSCRIBERS: 55-11-3043-7300
Yaron Ernst
MD - Managed Investments
Managed Investments Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Releasing Office:
Moody's America Latina Ltda.
Avenida Nacoes Unidas, 12.551
16th Floor, Room 1601
Sao Paulo, SP 04578-903
Brazil
JOURNALISTS: 800-891-2518
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Moody's affirms the MQ1 Investment Manager Quality assessment of Santander Brasil Asset Management
