Fitch повысило долгосрочный рейтинг банка Каспийский (Казахстан)

/REUTERS, Москва, 02.09.05/ - Международное рейтинговое агентство Fitch Ratings повысило в пятницу долгосрочный рейтинг казахстанского банка Каспийский до уровня "В+" с "В" и подтвердило остальные рейтинги: - краткосрочный на уровне "В"; - индивидуальный на уровне "D"; - поддержки на уровне "5". Прогноз изменения долгосрочного рейтинга - стабильный, говорится в сообщении Fitch. Повышение, отмечает агентство, связано с сохраняющимися высокими финансовыми показателями Каспийского, хорошей капитализацией, высоким качеством активов, диверсифицированной базой финансирования и грамотным управлением ликвидностью. Каспийский является восьмым по величине коммерческим банком Казахстана, на который приходится примерно три процента от общего размера активов в системе. Ниже приводится оригинальный текст сообщения агентства Fitch Ratings на английском языке. LONDON, Sept 2 - Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, has today upgraded Kazakhstan-based Bank Caspian's ("Caspian") Long-term rating to B+' from 'B'. At the same time, the agency has affirmed the bank's other ratings at Short-term 'B', Individual 'D' and Support '5'. The Outlook on the Long-term rating is Stable. The upgrade reflects the continued strong performance of Caspian, its sound capital ratios, good asset quality to date, diversified funding and prudent liquidity management, as well as the bank's successful business development. However, the ratings remain constrained by the bank's relatively small, although growing, size and market share and the quite high, albeit declining, concentration of its loan book. The bank's ratings also reflect the risks associated with rapid loan book growth, as well as certain weaknesses in the operating environment. Caspian's performance was good in 2004 and outstanding in H105, although the latter was partially helped by low provisioning. Profits are rising on the back of the growing volume of high-yielding retail express lending as well as tight cost controls. Asset quality has been good to date but needs to be carefully controlled, given the very rapid growth of the loan portfolio. The tenor of funding has been lengthening, and Caspian plans to further increase its long-term funding through both domestic and foreign debt placements. The policy to keep all cumulative liquidity gaps positive is prudent, and is supported by the large portfolio of government securities, which can be used as collateral to obtain additional funding. Capitalisation is currently sound (total Basel capital adequacy ratio of 23% at end-H105), and capital ratios are likely to stay reasonably high in the future, despite the planned rapid growth of 50% per annum, due to strong internal capital generation. Upside on the ratings could result from the further profitable growth and diversification of the bank's franchise without deterioration in asset quality, an d reduction of the concentration in the loan book. Downward pressure could result from capital ratios falling below target levels, asset quality problems or a marked increase in the bank's risk appetite. At end of July this year, Caspian was the 8th largest commercial bank in Kazakhstan, with an approximate 3% share of the banking system's assets. Initially a corporate bank, it is now rapidly developing its retail and small and medium-sized enterprises ("SMEs") business, pioneering mass consumer express lending in Kazakhstan. [2005-09-02]