United Gulf Bank’s Ratings Affirmed

Capital Intelligence Ratings (CI Ratings or CI) today announced that it has affirmed the Long-Term Foreign Currency Rating (LT FCR) and Short-Term Foreign Currency Rating (ST FCR) of United Gulf Bank (UGB) at ‘BBB’ and ‘A3’, respectively. The LT FCR Outlook remains Stable. At the same time, CI Ratings has affirmed UGB’s Bank Standalone Rating (BSR) of ‘bbb-’ with a Stable Outlook. The Extraordinary Support Level (ESL) of Moderate is maintained.

The Bank’s LT FCR is set one notch above the BSR to reflect the moderate likelihood of extraordinary support from the Kuwait Projects Company Holding K.S.C. (KIPCO) group. The latter has demonstrated consistent support in terms of funding and capital over the years. This factor provides the most benefit to UGB’s credit risk profile. The Bank’s FCRs are not capped by Bahrain’s sovereign credit ratings (‘BB-’/ ‘B’/ Negative) or by…