National Finance Company – Long-Term National Rating Revised to ‘omA-’ Following Recalibration of Oman National Scale; Outlook Remains Stable

18  March 2021

Capital Intelligence Ratings (CI Ratings or CI) today announced that it has revised the Long-Term rating on the Oman National Scale of National Finance Company S.A.O.G. (NFC) to ‘omA-’ from ‘omBBB+’. The Short-Term rating on the same scale has been affirmed at ‘omA2’. The Outlook on the ratings remains Stable. The change in the Long-Term rating reflects the recalibration of the National Rating Scale for Oman, as well as the repositioning of entities and issues rated on that scale following the recent downgrade of Oman’s sovereign ratings to ‘BB’/Negative from ‘BB+’/Negative.

The rating impact of the deterioration in the operating environment on NFC’s credit profile has been offset by the recalibration of the national rating scale for Oman, which – taken in isolation – has had a positive impact on national rating grades. This is because national ratings provide a measure of relative creditworthiness within a particular country and…