June 24, 2014 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings said a ‘B+’ rating of Sri Lanka’s National Development Bank has been confirmed with a ‘stable’ outlook. Fitch also confirmed its foreign currency rating of ‘B+/Stable’ and withdrew a ‘B+(EXP)’ rating given to a proposed dollar bond sale which has since been abandoned.
NDB is in merger discussions with Sri Lanka’s DFCC bank under a regulatory driven exercise.
The full statement is reproduced below:
Fitch Affirms National Development Bank at ‘B+’; Outlook Stable
Fitch Ratings-Colombo/Hong Kong-23 June 2014: Fitch Ratings has affirmed Sri Lanka-based National Development Bank PLC’s (NDB) Long-Term Foreign-Currency and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at ‘B+’ with a Stable Outlook. The agency has also affirmed NDB’s Viability Rating (VR) at ‘b+’. The expected rating of ‘B+(EXP)’ assigned to NDB’s proposed USD notes issuance, has been withdrawn as the bank no longer expects to proceed with the debt issue as previously envisaged. NDB’s National Long-Term Rating has also been affirmed at ‘AA-(lka)’ with a Stable Outlook. A full list of rating actions is at the end of this c