Outlook for Ominvest’s Corporate and National Scale Ratings Revised to Negative following Sovereign Rating Action

18 February 2020

Capital Intelligence Ratings (CI Ratings or CI), the international credit rating agency, today announced that it has revised the Outlook on the ‘BBB- ’Long-Term Corporate Rating of Oman International Development and Investment Company (Ominvest) to Negative from Stable. At the same time, CI Ratings has also revised Ominvest’s ‘omAA+’ Long-Term National Scale Rating Outlook to Negative from Stable.

The change follows the recent revision of Oman’s sovereign Outlook to Negative from Stable, and reflects the fact that Ominvest’s current Long-Term Corporate Rating of ‘BBB-’ is at the same level as that of the sovereign. Ominvest’s investments are very largely Oman-based and performance at subsidiaries and associates is affected to a considerable degree by the overall performance of the local economy – which remains weak and vulnerable to shocks. Consequently, Ominvest does not meet CI’s criteria for being rated above the sovereign. Should…