10 Nov 2016 07:00
UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION
Report 24/2016: Fitch Ratings affirmed Bank's ratings. Support Rating placed on Credit Watch Negative reflecting potential sale transaction of Bank Pekao SA to PZU S.A. and the Polish Development Fund by UniCredit.
Management Board of Bank Polska Kasa Opieki S.A. ("Bank") informs that on 9th of November 2016 rating agency Fitch Ratings ("Fitch") informed about reviewing and affirming Bank's ratings at unchanged levels.
The affirmation of Bank's ratings is underpinned by its sound fundamental credit quality and by the absence of any major changes in its financial metrics over the last 12 months.
At the same time Fitch placed Bank's Support rating on Rating Watch Negative.
Fitch stated that in mid-October, UniCredit confirmed that it was in talks with PZU S.A. and the Polish Development Fund (Polski Fundusz Rozwoju) regarding a possible sale transaction involving Pekao. The placement of Pekao's Support Rating on Rating Watch Negative reflects this potential sale and the expectation that Fitch's assessment of the new controlling shareholders' ability and propensity to provide extraordinary support, should a sale go through, will be lower than at present.
After this decision Bank's ratings are as follows:
Long-term IDR: "A-";
Outlook: "Stable";
Short-term IDR: "F2";
Viability Rating: "a-";
Support Rating: "2" placed on Rating Watch Negative.
Legal basis: Article 17 sec. 1 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on market abuse (market abuse regulation) and repealing Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directives 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC