New York, November 30, 2011 -- Moody's Investors Services affirmed all ratings assigned to Banco
Votorantim S.A. (Banco Votorantim), including the
C- bank financial strength rating (BFSR), the global local
and foreign currency deposit ratings, the national scale deposit
ratings on the Brazilian national scale as well as the foreign currency
senior unsecured and subordinated debt ratings assigned to the notes issued
by Banco Votorantim S.A. (Nassau Branch).
At the same time, Moody's changed to negative from stable
the outlook on Banco Votorantim's C- BFSR and on the A3 long-term
global local currency deposit rating, as well as on the Baa1 foreign
currency subordinated debt rating.
The outlook on the foreign currency senior unsecured debt rating assigned
to notes issued by Banco Votorantim S.A. Nassau Branch was
changed to stable from positive, to reflect the negative outlook
on the local currency rating, from which it is derived.
The long and short-term foreign currency deposit ratings remain
constrained by Brazil's Baa2 country ceiling for foreign currency
deposits, and have a positive outlook that is aligned with the positive
outlook on the ceiling.
The following ratings were affirmed and had the outlook changed to negative
from stable:
Bank Financial Strength Rating of C-
Global Long-Term Local Currency Deposit Rating of A3
Long-Term Foreign Currency Subordinated Debt Rating of Baa1
The following rating was affirmed and had the outlook changed to stable
from positive:
Long-Term Foreign Currency Senior Unsecured Debt Rating of Baa1
The following ratings remained unchanged:
Short-Term Global Local Currency Deposit Rating of Prime-2
Long-Term Foreign Currency Deposit Rating of Baa2, positive
outlook
Short-Term Foreign Currency Deposit Rating of Prime-2
Long-Term Brazilian National Scale Deposit Rating of Aaa.br,
stable outlook
Short-Term Brazilian National Scale Deposit Rating of BR-1
RATING RATIONALE
The affirmation of Banco Votorantim's C- BFSR primarily reflects
the bank's strong business franchise and well established market
shares in consumer finance, and in car finance in particular,
as well as in wholesale banking . In addition, Banco Votorantim
has developed a middle market lending platform that should help the bank
to expand into better yielding commercial lending products supported by
strong collateral structures while at the same time reducing. the
concentration risk inherent in its corporate lending book.
The negative outlook on the ratings reflects Moody's expectation
that Banco Votorantim's financial metrics are likely to come under
further pressure over the coming quarters as management continues to adjust
its provisioning policies and shift the bank's consumer business
mix to lower yielding assets. Moody's said it views as positive
the refocusing of the bank's operations towards less volatile business
lines as well as the increased balance sheet protection management is
seeking to achieve by building additional reserves, maintaining
high levels of liquidity, and exiting capital intensive businesses.
In the meantime, however, Moody's expects the bank's
asset quality indicators and earnings generation capacity to weaken,
which will also reduce the pace of internal capital generation from retained
earnings.
The asset quality deterioration reported in the 3Q11 reflects both the
seasoning of the bank's car loan portfolio, which had grown
substantially during 2009 and 2010 as well as borrowers' weakening
repayment capacity. Non-performing loan ratios are expected
to remain high for the next several quarters, reflecting less favorable
economic conditions that affect the repayment capacity of consumer borrowers.
Consumer loans accounted for roughly 60% of Banco Votorantim's
consolidated loans as of September 2011.
Moody's said that the bank presented adequate BIS capitalization
of 12.7% as of September 2011, which increases to
14.1% when considering the easing of additional capital
requirement on long term consumer loans, announced by regulators
in November 2011. However, the rating agency warned that
the lower profitability expected for the next 12 to 18 months will likely
pressure capital and thus limit the bank's ability to grow.
The A3 long-term global local currency deposit is the result of
(1) Banco Votorantim's unsupported rating of C- which translates
into a baseline credit assessment of Baa2 and (2) Moody's view that
the likelihood of the bank to receive support from Banco do Brasil S.A.
(BB) is high, given the strategic importance of the partnership
for BB's consumer finance expansion targets. Moody's does not incorporate
any systemic support into the bank's ratings.
Moody's last rating action on Banco Votorantim S.A. was
on June 20, 2011, when the foreign currency deposit and debt
ratings were upgraded to Baa2 from Baa3, and to Baa1 from Baa2,
respectively. The upgrade was aligned with the upgrade of the respective
sovereign ceilings for Brazil, as the ratings are constrained.
The principal methodologies used in this rating were "Bank Financial Strength
Ratings: Global Methodology" published in February 2007, and
"Incorporation of Joint-Default Analysis into Moody's Bank Ratings:
A Refined Methodology" published in March 2007, and "Moody's Guidelines
for Rating Bank Hybrid Securities and Subordinated Debt" published in
November 2009.
Moody'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 to 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 ".br" for Brazil. For further
information on Moody's approach to national scale ratings, please
refer to Moody's Rating Implementation Guidance August 2010 "Mapping Moody's
National Scale Ratings to Global Scale Ratings."
Banco Votorantim S.A. is headquartered in São Paulo,
Brazil and reported consolidated assets of R$ 124.3 billion
(US$ 68.1 billion) and equity of R$ 8.7 billion
(US$ 4.8 billion) as of September 30, 2011.
The Local Market analyst for this rating is Ceres Lisboa, 55-11-3043-7317.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Although the present credit ratings have been issued in a non-EU
country which has not been recognised as endorsable at point of registration,
the present credit ratings may still be used by financial institutions
for regulatory purposes until 31 January 2012, including credit
ratings issued within this period. Moreover, ESMA may decide
and disclose by end December 2011 to extend the possibility to use credit
ratings for regulatory purposes in the European Community for three additional
months, until 30 April 2012, provided that exceptional circumstances
occur that may imply potential market disruption or financial instability.
Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's
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Jeanne Del Casino
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
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M. Celina Vansetti
MD - Banking
Financial Institutions Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Moody's affirms Banco Votorantim's ratings, outlook revised to negative