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April 20, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 28
bne:Banker
Fitch says Russian banks will absorb risks from latest US sanctions
Russian banks appear able to absorb potential credit losses from their exposure to individuals and companies targeted by US sanctions announced on 6 April, Fitch Ratings said on April 17.
In the most damaging sanctions round sine 2014, the US Treasury sanctioned several Russian businessmen and the companies they control, adding them to its list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDNs), freezing their US assets, and prohibiting US citizens from dealing with them.
"Most rated banks do not have material exposure, and those that do appear to have collateral or sufficient pre-impairment profitability to cover potential losses," Fitch commented, not expecting any immediate rating impact. However, if banks continue to transact with the named individuals or companies, they themselves may face further sanctions, the agency warned.
Moscow-based development bank International Investment Bank (IIB) has priced its denominated private placement transaction with three-year floating rate notes in koruna of CZK501mn, the bank said in a press release on April 18.
The transaction is part of IIB’s strategy to diversify its funding sources, and will be followed by the issuer listing on both the Prague and Vienna bourses. The move comes after rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) upgraded IIB’s long-term rating to BBB+ stable amid positive results for 2017.
IIB offered a price guidance of 3m Pribor +50/60 bps for a three- year private placement.
Moody’s Investor Service announced that it has placed on review for downgrade the ratings of Slovenia’s largest lender Nova Ljubljanska banka (NLB), which reflects Moody's assessment of the likely negative impact on NLB's credit strength of the delay in completion of the bank's restructuring, including its privatisation.
Slovenia had committed to sell 75% of the bank in a restructuring plan that served as a basis for the European Commission's approval of state aid to the bank in the 2013 bailout by 2017, but scrapped a planned IPO last June amid a dispute over the pricing of the offer and an ongoing lawsuit over Yugoslav-era deposits in Croatia.
Multilateral lender IIB to place its inaugural transaction in Czech koruna
Moody’s places Slovenia’s largest bank NLB on review for downgrade