Singapore, April 27, 2011 -- Moody's Investors Service has assigned provisional (P)A3 long-term
and (P)Prime-2 short-term foreign currency debt ratings
to the planned USD2.5 billion Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) Programme
of Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited (SCB).
The rating outlook is stable.
Assignments:
Issuer: Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited
USD2.5 billion EMTN Program: Assigned (P)A3 and (P)Prime-2
The rating is subject to the receipt of final documentation, with
terms and conditions that do not deviate materially from the preliminary
documents already reviewed by Moody's.
RATINGS RATIONALE
SCB can issue senior notes of any maturity under the programme,
although the (P)A3/Prime-2 ratings will not immediately apply to
any of the specific notes. Ratings on such notes are subject to
our review of the terms and conditions set forth in the final prospectuses,
supplements, or offering memoranda of the notes to be issued.
Furthermore, Moody's does not intend to assign a programme rating
to:
(1) individual notes that are linked to the performance of another obligor
(credit-linked notes)
(2) notes in which payment of the principal or interest is variable and
contractually dependent on the occurrence of a non-credit-linked
event or the performance of an index (non-credit-linked
notes), except for notes whose principal and coupon payments are
affected by standard sources of variation (See Moody's Special Comment,
"Moody's Update on Rating Debt Obligations with Variable Promises,"
June 2009).
The senior notes will represent unsecured and unsubordinated obligations
of SCB. The programme's terms and conditions contain a negative
pledge.
SCB's provisional A3 foreign currency senior unsecured rating reflects
its D+ bank financial strength rating (BFSR), which maps to
a baseline credit assessment (BCA) of Baa3, and its systemic importance
to the Thai banking sector.
As Thailand's fourth-largest bank by assets, Moody's believes
that SCB's senior debt and deposit holders will benefit from the very
high level of systemic support, leading to a three-notch
uplift in its A3 long-term global local currency (GLC) deposit
rating from its Baa3 BCA.
The provisional A3 rating -- which is set at the same level as its
long-term GLC deposit rating (and one notch below Thailand's A2
foreign currency bond ceiling) -- assigned to these senior
notes incorporates Moody's expectation of that support.
The bank's key shareholder (24%) is the Crown Property Bureau,
which manages the Thai monarchy's properties.
Concerns over a supported bank's ability to source foreign currency often
deters Moody's from rating foreign currency debt above the sovereign's
foreign currency debt (Baa1 for Thailand).
However, the structure of SCB's foreign currency balance sheet is
evidence that the bank has a low reliance on external funding (assets
exceeding obligations).
In addition to SCB's own foreign currency deposits, the Thai government's
strong and improving position on external payments has mitigated our concerns,
allowing this rating to be set one notch above the Baa1 government debt
rating for Thailand. This approach is in line with the guidelines
discussed in Moody's February 2009 Special Comment titled, "Banks
Dependent on Government Foreign Currency Resources for Support."
SCB's ratings are underpinned by (1) its status as one of the big four
Thai banks; (2) the bank's success in building up its retail banking
business; (3) its healthy profitability and strong capital adequacy.
However, the rating also takes into consideration the risks pertaining
to the country's volatile political environment, the bank's high
credit risk concentration and the weak (but improving) asset quality.
SCB reported net income of THB24 billion for 2010, 17% higher
than 2009. The increase was mainly due to (1) higher fee and service
income, (2) higher net interest and dividend income, and (3)
lower provisioning on the back of improving asset quality.
The bank reported 13% loan growth in 2010, and expects to
achieve 10-12% for the full year 2011 - focusing
on the corporate segment and auto hire purchase loans. NPLs decreased
to 3.7% at end-2010 from 4.8% a year
before. The bank reported Loan Loss Reserves to NPLs at 107%,
which was still at a comfortable level. Reported Tier 1 CAR was
11.6% and total CAR was 15.5% at end-2010.
The last rating action on SCB was taken on 28 October 2010 when the outlook
for SCB's foreign currency long-term deposit rating of Baa1
was changed to stable from negative, in line with the sovereign
rating action.
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.
SCB, headquartered in Bangkok, had assets of THB1,475
billion (USD49 billion) as of end-2010.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Information sources used to prepare the credit rating are the following:
parties involved in the ratings, public information, and confidential
and proprietary Moody's Investors Service information.
Moody's Investors Service considers the quality of information available
on the issuer or obligation satisfactory for the purposes of assigning
a credit rating.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it uses
in assigning a credit 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 ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on Moodys.com
for the last rating action and the rating history.
The date on which some Credit Ratings were first released goes back to
a time before Moody's Investors Service's Credit Ratings were fully digitized
and accurate data may not be available. Consequently, Moody's
Investors Service 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 the Credit Policy page on Moodys.com for the methodologies
used in determining ratings, further information on the meaning
of each rating category and the definition of default and recovery.
Singapore
Karolyn C. Seet
Asst Vice President - Analyst
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Investors Service Singapore Pte. Ltd.
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Hong Kong
Stephen Long
MD - Financial Institutions
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Investors Service Hong Kong Ltd.
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Moody's assigns (P)A3 to Siam Commercial Bank's proposed EMTN programme