Buenos Aires, February 09, 2011 -- Moody's Investors Service upgraded Banco Patagonia S.A.
(Patagonia)'s long term global local currency deposit rating to Ba1 from
Ba2. At the same time, Moody's Latin America upgraded
the local currency national scale rating to Aaa.ar from Aa1.ar.
The D bank financial strength rating (BFSR), the long term foreign
currency deposit ratings of Caa1 and Ba1.ar as well as the global
short term local and foreign currency deposit ratings of Not Prime were
not affected by this action.
At the same time Moody's Investors Service upgraded GPAT Compañía
Financiera S.A. (GPAT)'s long term global local currency
issuer rating to Ba2 from Ba3. On the National Scale, Moody's
Latin America upgraded the entity's local currency issuer rating
to Aa1.ar from Aa2.ar. Moody's also upgraded GPAT's
global local currency debt rating for the debt program amounting to Ar$
400 million or its equivalent in other currencies to (P)Ba2 from (P)Ba3.
The global local currency debt rating assigned to the Ar$ 50 million
first takedown under the program was also upgraded to Ba2 from Ba3.
On the national scale, the local currency debt ratings for both
the program and the first issuance were upgraded to Aa1.ar from
Aa2.ar. The foreign currency debt ratings for the program,
on both the global and national scales, of (P) B2 and Aa3.ar
were affirmed.
The outlook on all ratings is now stable.
The following ratings of Banco Patagonia were upgraded:
- Global local currency deposit rating to Ba1 from Ba2, with
stable outlook
- National Scale local currency deposit rating to Aaa.ar
from Aa1.ar
The following ratings of GPAT Compañía Financiera were upgraded:
Global Local Currency Issuer Rating: upgraded to Ba2 from Ba3,
outlook stable
- National Scale Local Currency Issuer Rating: upgraded to
Aa1.ar from Aa2.ar, outlook stable
- Ar$ 400 million, or its equivalent in other countries,
senior debt program:
- Global Scale long-term local currency debt rating:
upgraded to (P) Ba2 from (P) Ba3, outlook stable
- National Scale long-term local-currency debt rating:
upgraded to Aa1.ar from Aa2.ar, outlook stable
- Ar$50 million unsecured notes:
- Global Scale long-term local currency debt rating:
upgraded to Ba2 from Ba3, outlook stable
- National Scale long-term local-currency debt rating:
upgraded to Aa1.ar from Aa2.ar, outlook stable
RATINGS RATIONALE
The rating actions conclude the review for upgrade of Banco Patagonia's
deposit ratings, initiated on April 22, 2010, and are
based on the recent approval by Argentinean regulators of Banco do Brasil
S.A.'s acquisition of 51% of Banco Patagonia's
shares. The rating upgrades reflect the assumption of a moderate
probability of parental support for Banco Patagonia's deposits based
on Banco do Brasil's C+ financial strength rating and A2 baseline
credit assessment. Such support is reflected in one notch of uplift
to the bank's Ba2 baseline credit assessment, to result in a Ba1
global local deposit rating.
The rating action on GPAT, a car finance company 99% owned
by Banco Patagonia, concludes the review initiated on January 28,
2011, when Moody's assigned first time ratings to the entity.
The upgrade is consistent with the one notch gap between GPAT's local
currency debt rating and Patagonia's senior unsecured rating that
reflects the degree of integration between GPAT's operation and Banco
Patagonia.
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 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 ".ar" for Argentina.
For further information on Moody's approach to national scale ratings,
please refer to Moody's Rating Implementation Guidance published in August
2010 entitled "Mapping Moody's National Scale Ratings to Global Scale
Ratings."
Headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Banco Patagonia
had Ar$11.4 billion in assets, Ar$8.4
billion in deposits, and Ar$ 1.9 billion in shareholders'
equity, as of September 30, 2010.
GPAT Compañía Financiera S.A. is headquartered
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and reported Ar$ 271.4
million of total assets and Ar$ 177.1 million of shareholders'
equity as of September 30, 2010.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Information sources used to prepare the credit rating are the following:
parties involved in the ratings, parties not involved in the ratings,
public information, 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.
Buenos Aires
Maria Andrea Manavella
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Latin America, Calificadora de Riesgo
JOURNALISTS: (800) 666 -3506
SUBSCRIBERS: (5411) 4816-2332
New York
Jeanne Del Casino
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Investors Service
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Moody's Latin America, Calificadora de Riesgo
Cerrito 1186, 11th fl
Buenos Aires C1010AAX
Argentina
JOURNALISTS: (800) 666 -3506
SUBSCRIBERS: (5411) 4816-2332
Moody's upgrades Banco Patagonia's and GPAT local currency ratings