S&P affirms structural stability of UBA Plc., gives ‘B/B’ ratings on outlook
Leading international rating agency, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has assigned its ‘B’ long term and ‘B’ short term global scale counterpart credit ratings to the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc.
In its statement, the agency said UBA’s market position “is supported by its good franchise in the corporate and retail segments in Nigeria as well as geographic diversification, with operations in nineteen African countries.”
It also averred that UBA is the only West-African bank with operations in the United States, in addition to its presence in the United Kingdom and France.
Commenting on the bank’s strong profitability and capitalization, S&P noted: “We expect that UBA’s earnings will be resilient despite the economic slowdown in Nigeria.
“We believe the bank’s capital and earnings under our risk adjusted capital and earnings framework will remain moderate over the next 12-18 months, with its capital adequacy ratio remaining well above minimum regulatory requirements.”
UBA’s capital adequacy ratio was 19.7 per cent at year-end 2016, which is well above the regulatory minimum of 15 per cent, and we believe it will remain stable over the next 12-18 months.
S&P assesses UBA’s risk position as adequate and posits that the ratings of ‘B’ reflect its expectation that the group will exhibit broadly stable asset quality in the next 12 months.
The agency also anticipates that the bank’s credit losses will decline to about 1.0 per cent in 2017-2018.
Reflecting UBA’s continued market share gain in low cost, stable deposits, which account for 79 per cent of total customer deposits as at 31 December, 2016, UBA’s funding and liquidity continue to wax stronger, as reflected in the average liquidity ratio of 42 per cent in 2016, amidst the tight market conditions in Nigeria.
S&P considers the bank’s funding to be above average and its liquidity as adequate, owing to its stable and relatively low-cost, retail-deposit-based funding profile.
Despite tightening monetary policy in Nigeria in 2015-2016, the bank has been able to maintain a stable cost of funding at about 3.7 per cent as of December 31, 2016.
It reported a net stable funding ratio of 143 per cent as of the same date and exhibits one of the lowest levels of loan leverage among Nigerian peers. Broad liquid assets covered short term wholesale funding about 4x as of the same date.
S&P’s ‘B’ rating is the highest rating currently assigned to any Nigerian-based financial institution, thus reinforcing the respectable quality and strength of UBA, the third largest Nigerian-based bank by total assets, deposits and profits.
UBA is a leading Pan-African financial institution, offering banking services to more than fourteen million customers across over 1,000 business offices and customer touch points in 19 African countries.
With presence in New York, London and Paris, UBA is connecting people and businesses across Africa through retail, commercial and corporate banking, innovative cross border payments and remittances, trade finance and ancillary banking services
