United Gulf Bank – Ratings and Stable Outlook 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 or the Bank) 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 Core Financial Strength (CFS) of ‘bbb-’ and Extraordinary Support Level (ESL) of Moderate are maintained.

The LT FCR is set one notch above the BSR to reflect the moderate likelihood of extraordinary support that UGB is expected to receive from its Kuwaiti parent Burgan Bank (BB) – the key member of the Kuwait Projects Company Holding K.S.C. (KIPCO) Group. This factor firmly underpins UGB’s credit risk profile and ratings. The Bank’s FCRs are not capped by Bahrain’s sovereign credit ratings (‘B+’/‘B’/Negative) or by CI’s assessment of Bahrain…