S&P Downgrades Rating On Devt. Bank Of Singapore.MELBOURNE, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 26, 1998--Standard & Poor's today downgraded its public information (pi) rating on the Development Bank of Singapore Ltd. (DBS Bank  This article or section is written like an .Please help [ rewrite this article] from a neutral point of view. Mark blatant advertising for , using . ) to single-'Api' from double-'Api'. At the same time, Standard & Poor's affirmed its 'pi' ratings on four Singapore domestic banks, namely Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Ltd.,United Overseas Bank Ltd., Overseas Union Bank Ltd. and Keppel TatLee Bank A Singapore based bank. Formed through a merger of Keppel Bank and Tat Lee bank. Formerly partially owned by Allied Irish Banks, and sold to Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation. Ltd. (formerly known as Keppel Bank of Singapore Ltd.), and withdrawn the 'pi' rating on Tat Lee Bank Ltd., following the bank becoming a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of Keppel TatLee Bank (see list below). The rating downgrade on DBS Bank reflects Standard & Poor's view that the bank's near-to-medium financial profile has been impacted by the continued regional economic downturn and poor asset quality of Thai Danu Bank, DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) A one-way TV broadcast service from a communications satellite to a small round or oval dish antenna no larger than 20" in diameter. Bank's 50.27% subsidiary in Thailand, causing DBS Bank's nonperforming loans (NPL 1. NPL - New Programming Language. IBM's original (temporary) name for PL/I, changed due to conflict with England's "National Physical Laboratory." MPL and MPPL were considered before settling on PL/I. Sammet 1969, p.542. 2. )-to-total loans (including debt securities) ratio to triple to 6.2% at June 1998 from 1.9% at Dec. 1997. Standard & Poor's expects this level, which already exceeds the 3.5%-4.8% ratios of DBS Bank's three major peers, to worsen with the expectation that NPLs for regional banking systems have yet to peak. In addition, DBS Bank group's cumulative provisioning, prima facie [Latin, On the first appearance.] A fact presumed to be true unless it is disproved. In common parlance the term prima facie is used to describe the apparent nature of something upon initial observation. as a result of the underprovisioning at Thai Danu Bank, for total NPLs at 48% is much lower than its peers. The aggregate impact of higher overall NPLs, problem assets at Thai Danu, and likely equity ratio dilution stemming from DBS Bank's proposed acquisition of the business of The Post Office Savings Bank The Post Office Savings Bank may refer to:
Restructuring a company's debt and equity mixture often with the aim of making a company's capital structure more stable. Notes: Companies often want to diversify their debt-to-equity ratio to improve liquidity. of Thai Danu, as refusal could well damage DBS Bank's own credibility among regulators and institutional investors. Given the Singapore government's six-year phased removal of the tax exemption tax exemption, immunity from the requirement of paying taxes. Federal, state, and usually local law provide exemption from taxation for a wide variety of organizations, usually not-for-profit, such as churches, colleges, universities, health care providers, various status of interest paid to POSBank's saving account depositors, some uncertainty exists regarding DBS Bank's ability to completely retain POSBank's customer franchise. On a positive note, DBS Bank has a relatively long lead time to entrench en·trench also in·trench v. en·trenched, en·trench·ing, en·trench·es v.tr. 1. To provide with a trench, especially for the purpose of fortifying or defending. 2. its position, and the POSBank acquisition should reinforce the group as a strong price maker in domestic banking through its sheer size and significant representation in key market segments. However, in Standard & Poor's opinion, the improved business profile from the proposed and recent acquisitions is qualitatively insufficient to offset DBS Bank's softer financial profile. All Singapore banks recently reported poorer June 1998 interim results caused mainly by higher provisioning expenses to meet rising nonperforming loans (NPL). Nevertheless, Standard & Poor's affirms its ratings on Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Ltd., United Overseas Bank Ltd., Overseas Union Bank Ltd. and Keppel TatLee Bank Ltd. on the basis these banks' strong capitalization (even after excluding unrealized asset revaluation Revaluation A calculated adjustment to a country's official exchange rate relative to a chosen baseline. The baseline can be anything from wage rates to the price of gold to a foreign currency. In a fixed exchange rate regime, only a decision by a country's government (i.e. surplus) are adequate to absorb higher NPLs. The banks' respective domestic franchises serve as a core income stream allowing the banks to ride out the current regional economic turbulence, Standard & Poor's said. -- CreditWire. -0-
RATING DOWNGRADED
To From
Development Bank of Singapore Ltd. Api/--/-- AApi/--/--
pi(a) RATINGS AFFIRMED
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Ltd. Api/--/--
Overseas Union Bank Ltd. Api/--/--
United Overseas Bank Ltd. Api/--/--
Keppel TatLee Bank Ltd. BBBpi/--/--
pi(a) RATING WITHDRAWN
To From
Tat Lee Bank Ltd. --/--/-- BBBpi/--/--
(a) Ratings with a 'pi' subscript (1) In word processing and scientific notation, a digit or symbol that appears below the line; for example, H2O, the symbol for water. Contrast with superscript. (2) In programming, a method for referencing data in a table. are based on an analysis of an issuer's published financial information as well as additional information in the public domain. No plus ('+') or minus ('-') sign, and no outlook is assigned to such ratings.
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