Fitch Rates KASIKORNBANK's Basel III Tier 2 USD Notes Final 'BBB'

Tuesday 01 October 2019 10:28
Fitch Ratings has assigned KASIKORNBANK Public Company Limited's (KBank; BBB+/Stable/bbb+) USD800 million Basel III-compliant Tier 2 subordinated notes due October 2031 a final rating of 'BBB'.

The notes are issued by KBank's Hong Kong branch under its euro medium-term note programme. The assignment of the final rating follows the receipt of final documents conforming to the information already received. The final rating is the same as the expected rating assigned on 20 September 2019.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

The Tier 2 notes are rated one notch below the anchor rating, which is KBank's Viability Rating of 'bbb+'. This reflects the notes' subordinated status and higher loss-severity risks relative to senior unsecured instruments. No additional notching has been applied, as the notes neither have any going-concern loss-absorption features nor mandatory full write-down at non-viability.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

Any change to KBank's Viability Rating would have a similar effect on the notes' ratings, as the Viability Rating is the anchor rating from which the notes are notched down.

For full details on KBank's key rating drivers and sensitivities see, Fitch Affirms KASIKORNBANK at 'BBB+', Kasikorn Securities at 'AA(tha)', published 12 April 2019, and our credit report, KASIKORNBANK Public Company Limited, published 17 July 2019; both available at www.fitchratings.com

DATE OF RELEVANT COMMITTEE

11 April 2019

ESG CONSIDERATIONS

Unless otherwise disclosed in this section, the highest level of ESG credit relevance is a score of 3 - ESG issues are credit neutral or have only a minimal credit impact on the entity, either due to their nature or the way in which they are being managed by the entity.

For more information on our ESG Relevance Scores, visit www.fitchratings.com/esg

Additional information is available on www.fitchratings.com