Fitch, Moody’s reaffirm Cyprus Hellenic Bank ratings

Two rating agencies have reaffirmed their positions on Hellenic Bank due to the Group’s stable fundamentals and favorable prospects.
Fitch has reaffirmed the C/D financial strength ratings for Hellenic Bank, as well as BBB/F3 credit rating with a ‘stable’ outlook. The rating agency has also withdrawn its ‘negative’ rating watch on the bank issued in May, due to the improvement of the Group’s financials in the second quarter and the projection that the bank will remain profitable for the whole of 2009.
A week earlier Moody’s reaffirmed Hellenic’s financial strength rating at D+, but lowered its outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ due to general market sentiment and the bank’s unproductive efforts in Greece, maintaining the bank’s deposit rating at Baa2/P-2. Moody’s said that the ratings were reaffirmed due to the bank’s strong local branch franchise, good liquidity and sufficient capital, in addition to a strong share of the profitable international companies.
Hellenic Bank said in an announcement that it’s revised strategic plan for Greece will see a rapid pace of development and fundamental changes to its branch network, while its Group performance is based on improvements of its strong financials such as raising the its capital adequacy ration from 11% in December 2009 to 13% at present.