Moscow, July 15, 2014 -- Moody's Interfax Rating Agency has today downgraded national scale ratings
(NSR) of Kedr Bank to Baa3.ru from Baa1.ru. The NSRs
carry no specific outlooks
Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on moodys.com
for information on Global Scale Rating.
RATINGS RATIONALE
- STANDALONE RATINGS
According to Moody's Interfax, the downgrade reflects materialised
risks related to Kedr's weakened corporate governance and banking
franchise in 2013 as a consequence of frequent changes both in ownership
structure and in senior management. The rating agency also notes
that the turbulence surrounding Kedr's ownership negatively affected
its business, resulting in the loan book shrinking by 19%
in 2013. The rating reflects the bank's fragile creditworthiness,
and takes into account the need for evidence of a longer track record
of management's actions to stabilise Kedr.
Moody's Interfax says that in Q2 2014 Kedr's ownership structure
changed for the third time since 2012, and the control over the
bank was transferred to a group of investors related to a Moscow-based
Joint-Stock Bank ROST (not rated) ranked 68th by assets as of 1
June 2014.The ultimate beneficiary of both banks is Mr.Oleg
Karchev who is also co-owner of the largest wholesale supplier
of IT, office and home appliances in Russia with annual sales at
$3.5 billion in 2013, according to business information
group Forbes. Moody's Interfax expects that Kedr will be
consolidated into ROST Banking group by the end of 2015.
In 2013, Kedr recognised a net loss of RUB645 million versus net
profit of RUB459 million in 2012. Weak bottom-line results
have been driven by (1) lower lending activity; (2) heavy operational
costs caused by increased staff expenses; and (3) additional provisioning
charges on acquired impaired loans and non-core assets.
The rating agency has noted that the new shareholder's management
team has taken prudent steps to improve Kedr's cost discipline,
work out or dispose non-performing and non-core assets,
and to improve profit generating capacities. Moody's Interfax
expects Kedr will be close to break-even in 2014.
Kedr's asset quality remains satisfactory to date, taking
into account work-out procedures led by Bank ROST's senior
management since the ownership transfer in Q2 2014. According to
Moody's Interfax estimates, the problem loans ratio decreased
to 9.8% at year-end 2013 from 11.5%
at year-end 2012. According to Kedr, around RUB1 billion
of impaired loans have been sold to former owners and third parties,
which should improve the loan book quality. At the same time,
the bank formed loan loss provisions at 7.2% of the gross
loan book as at year-end 2013 (year-end 2012: 3.9%).
Overall, the bank's ability to manage potential credit losses
depends on (1) its capital sustainability; and (2) the success of
the work-out procedures and non-core asset disposals.
Over the next 12-18 months, Moody's Interfax believes
that the moderate level of Kedr's capital cushion will represent
a key rating constraint, as would the limited track record of the
new shareholders' ability to inject capital, although the
rating agency expects subordinated loan issuances to underpin bank's
total capital adequacy ratio, if needed.
WHAT COULD MOVE THE RATINGS DOWN/UP
Kedr Bank's ratings have limited upside potential. Moody's
Interfax says that the rating could be revised upwards if bank is able
to dispose of non-core assets and improve profitability while maintaining
satisfactory assets quality and capital levels.
Kedr Bank's ratings could be further downgraded if it experiences
(1) any material adverse changes in the risk profile, particularly
an increasing level of non-core assets; (2) increased related-party
transactions or concentration levels in its loan book; (3) significant
impairment of the bank's liquidity profile; and (4) any failure
to maintain control over its asset quality.
PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY
The principal methodology used in this rating was Global Banks published
in May 2013. Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of this methodology.
Domiciled in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, Kedr Bank reported --
under its audited IFRS -- total assets of RUB29.0 billion
and total shareholders' equity of RUB2.8 billion as at 31
December 2013. Net IFRS loss for 2013 achieved RUB644.6
million.
Moody's Interfax Rating Agency's National Scale Ratings (NSRs) are
intended as relative measures of creditworthiness among debt issues and
issuers within a country, enabling market participants to better
differentiate relative risks. NSRs differ from Moody's global scale
ratings in that they are not globally comparable with the full universe
of Moody's rated entities, but only with NSRs for other rated debt
issues and issuers within the same country. NSRs are designated
by a ".nn" country modifier signifying the relevant
country, as in ".ru" for Russia. For further
information on Moody's approach to national scale ratings, please
refer to Moody's Rating Methodology published in October 2012 entitled
"Mapping Moody's National Scale Ratings to Global Scale Ratings".
ABOUT MOODY'S AND MOODY'S INTERFAX
Moody's Interfax Rating Agency (MIRA) specializes in credit risk analysis
in Russia. MIRA is a joint-venture between Moody's Investors
Service, a leading provider of credit ratings, research and
analysis covering debt instruments and securities in the global capital
markets, and the Interfax Information Services Group. Moody's
Investors Service is a subsidiary of Moody's Corporation (NYSE:
MCO).
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings
are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's
rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to the rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular
rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the
support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive
rating 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 rating in a manner that would
have affected the rating. For further information please see the
ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this rating action, and
whose ratings may change as a result of this rating 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.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
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.
Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Petr Paklin
Asst Vice President - Analyst
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Investors Service Limited, Russian Branch
7th floor, Four Winds Plaza
21 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya St.
Moscow 125047
Russia
Yves J Lemay
MD - Banking
Financial Institutions Group
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Moody's Interfax downgrades Kedr Bank's National Scale Rating to Baa3.ru