Sao Paulo, March 24, 2014 -- Moody's Investors Service has today confirmed all ratings assigned to
Banco Votorantim S.A. (Banco Votorantim), including
the bank's D+ unsupported bank financial strength, which
maps to a standalone baseline credit assessment (BCA) of baa3 in the global
rating scale. The supported local and foreign currency deposit
ratings were also confirmed at Baa2 and Prime-2, for long
and short-term, respectively, as well as the foreign
currency senior unsecured and subordinated debt ratings of Baa2 and Baa3
assigned to the outstanding notes issued through Banco Votorantim S.A.
and through Banco Votorantim S.A. Nassau Branch.
The outlook for all these ratings is stable. This action concludes
the review for downgrade initiated on October 3, 2013.
The Aaa.br/BR-1 Brazilian national scale deposit ratings
were not affected by today's actions.
The following ratings assigned to Banco Votorantim S.A.
were confirmed:
Bank financial strength rating: D+; stable outlook
Long-term global local currency deposit ratings: Baa2;
stable outlook
Short-term global local currency deposit rating: Prime-2
Long-term foreign currency deposit rating: Baa2; stable
outlook
Short-term foreign currency deposit rating: Prime-2
Long-term foreign currency senior unsecured debt rating assigned
to Programme: (P)Baa2
Short-term foreign currency senior unsecured debt rating assigned
to Programme: (P)Prime-2
Long-term foreign currency senior unsecured debt rating:
Baa2; stable outlook
Long-term foreign currency subordinated debt rating: Baa3;
stable outlook
The following ratings assigned to Banco Votorantim S.A.
Nassau Branch were confirmed:
Long-term foreign currency senior unsecured debt rating assigned
to Programme: (P)Baa2
Short-term foreign currency senior unsecured debt rating assigned
to Programme: (P)Prime-2
Long-term foreign currency senior unsecured debt rating:
Baa2; stable outlook
RATINGS RATIONALE
In confirming all ratings for Banco Votorantim and returning the outlook
to stable, Moody's noted the improvement in the bank's
financial metrics, particularly in asset quality and profitability,
and the consequent expected stabilization in its capitalization ratios.
Steady improvements in underwriting standards, improved credit quality
of car loan vintages, and the run off of lower quality legacy loan
portfolios point to a further decline in credit costs over the next quarters,
said the rating agency.
The significant 600 basis point reduction in BV's non-performing
loan ratio over the past two quarters, to 5.1% in
the fourth quarter of 2013, is the result of a decline in non-performing
loan formation by 33%. Relative to total loans, new
non-performing loans reached their lowest levels for the past two
years, a due in part to more conservative origination standards
and in part to the bank's loan portfolio shrinkage. In the
car loan portfolio, better quality vintages now account for 75%
of total, reflecting a meaningful run off of low quality vintages.
Moody's said it expects more robust loan loss reserve coverage to
result in lower credit costs in 2014, thus enabling Banco Votorantim
to return to historical profitability.
In addition, following extraordinary charges related to lay offs
and labor contingencies, the bank should enjoy cost savings from
2014 onwards. Costs related to the pre-payment of old securitizations
-- with revenues originally accounted for upfront -- are also
expected to fall significantly.
In this context, Moody's expects Banco Votorantim to achieve
a return on equity around mid-single digits in 2014, as the
restructuring process of the last two years starts to produce significant
benefits. Moody's also expects Banco Votorantim to prudently
manage its capital position by focusing on high quality assets and growth
to support internal capital generation.
While Moody's anticipates continuing recovery in Banco Votorantim`s
profitability in 2014, the agency notes that low growth in the Brazilian
economy, rising interest rates and the high inflation will continue
to pose challenges to the bank's loan growth and asset quality.
Moody's also recognizes that Banco do Brasil's (BB) 49.9%
ownership represents direct and indirect benefits to Banco Votorantim's
standalone credit quality, particularly with respect to asset and
liability management, including long-term resources to fund
consumer loans and a BRL7.0 billion stand-by credit facility,
redeemable at any time, though so far not utilized.
Banco Votorantim's Baa2 long-term global local currency deposit
rating incorporates one notch of uplift from its unsupported baa3 baseline
credit assessment, and that results from Moody's view of the high
likelihood of support from Banco do Brasil, rated Baa2 for deposits.
This is because of the strategic importance of the Banco Votorantim's
operations for BB's consumer finance expansion targets. Moody's,
however, does not incorporate any systemic support into the bank's
ratings.
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.
Moody's National Scale Credit 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 credit 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 ".mx"
for Mexico. For further information on Moody's approach to national
scale credit ratings, please refer to Moody's Credit rating Methodology
published in October 2012 entitled "Mapping Moody's National Scale
Credit Ratings to Global Scale Credit Ratings".
The last rating action on Banco Votorantim S.A. was on 3
October 2013, when Moody's placed all rating on review for
downgrade.
Banco Votorantim S.A. is headquartered in São Paulo,
Brazil and had total consolidated assets of BRL 105.49billion (USD44.69
billion) and equity of BRL7.14 billion (USD3.02 billion)
as of December 31 2013.
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.
Alcir Freitas
Vice President - Senior Analyst
Financial Institutions 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
Maria Celina Vansetti-Hutchins
MD - Banking
Financial Institutions Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
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
SUBSCRIBERS: 55-11-3043-7300
Moody's confirms Banco Votorantim's ratings; outlook changed to stable