Thursday, December 9 2010 18:48
Fitch Affirms Armenia's ACBA Credit Agricole at 'BB'
ArmInfo. Fitch Ratings has affirmed Armenian ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank's (ACBA) Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BB' with Stable Outlook. The bank's Individual Rating has also been affirmed at 'D'. Short-term IDR: affirmed at 'B'. Support Rating: affirmed at '3', says Fitch Ratings-London/Moscow-08 December 2010.
ACBA's IDRs and Support Rating reflect Fitch's view of the moderate probability of support being forthcoming if required from its shareholder, Credit Agricole (CA; 'AA- '/Stable), due to brand association, the close involvement of CA in establishing and supervising the bank and ACBA's relatively small size. However, the propensity of support is undermined by CA's minority stake (28%) and the fact that the Armenian market does not appear to be of strategic importance for CA.
The Individual Rating of the bank reflect its small absolute size, the high dollarisation of its balance sheet with 60% of loans and 58% of customer deposits at end-Q310 denominated in foreign currency and the challenging operating environment. The Individual Rating also considers the high granularity of the bank's loan portfolio, diversified funding base and stable liquidity position, still high profitability and good corporate governance, solid capitalisation with regulatory total capital adequacy ratio at 26.2% at end-Q310 and its broad domestic franchise. Asset quality, although deteriorated, has remained better than the sector average.
ACBA is one of Armenia's largest banks by assets and loans, with market shares of 11.9% and 10.8%, respectively, at end-Q310. It has a leading position in agricultural lending with an approximately 60% market share. The biggest stake in the bank is owned by CA (28%) and the remainder is distributed among 10 regional agricultural unions.
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