Moody’s upgrades Bank NRB Ukraine following acquisition by Sberbank

Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded the long-term global scale local currency deposit and senior unsecured debt ratings of Bank NRB Ukraine to Ba2 from B2. The rating agency also upgraded the bank’s long-term national scale rating to Aa1.ua from A1.ua.

Moody’s affirmed Bank NRB’s E+ bank financial strength rating, B2 foreign currency deposit rating and the Not Prime short-term ratings.

The outlook on Bank NRB’s foreign currency deposit rating, which is constrained by Ukraine’s B2/Not Prime ceiling for such deposits, is positive, while the outlook on all of the bank’s other ratings is stable.

These rating actions follow Bank NRB’s acquisition by Sberbank (rated A1/P-1/D+), announced in early 2006. This transaction has now been completed as Sberbank has finalised its acquisition of 100% of the total issued share capital of Bank NRB following the National Bank of Ukraine‘s approval of the acquisition.

The upgrade of Bank NRB’s local currency deposit and debt ratings and its NSR is based on Moody’s assumptions regarding Sberbank’s strong commitment to Bank NRB and the high probability that it would provide support to it in case of need.

Moody’s expects that the integration of Bank NRB into Sberbank will result in positive developments in the areas of franchise development, capitalisation and profitability, thus exerting upward pressure on its Baseline Credit Assessment. At present, Bank NRB’s E+ BFSR maps to a BCA of B2.

Headquartered in Kyiv, Ukraine, Bank NRB reported total IFRS consolidated assets of US$ 242 mln and net profit of US$ 5 mln as of year-end 2006.
Sberbank is the largest bank in the CIS and Eastern Europe. Its total assets under IFRS reached RUB 4.28 trln (US$ 165.9 bln) at end-1H 2007.