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BIABS - Absa Bank Limited - Rating downgrade of five South African banks by Moody`s Investors Service Absa Bank Limited (Incorporated with limited liability in South Africa under registration number 1986/004794/06) Bond Issuer Code: ABMN Rating downgrade of five South African banks by Moody`s Investors Service Notice is hereby given that Moody`s Investors Service has today downgraded by one notch the senior debt and deposit ratings of five South African banks, including Absa Bank Limited. The downgrades reflect the impact of the country`s increasingly constrained public finances and Moody`s view that authorities would face challenging policy choices if multiple institutions were to need its financial support at the same time. The downgrades are part of Moody`s global assessment of the systemic support levels incorporated in banks` deposit and debt ratings, which addresses the growing difficulties governments face in extending systemic support to their banking systems. Moody`s stated that today`s rating action is not driven by a deterioration in the standalone financial strength or the financial performance of these five institutions. This concludes Moody`s review for downgrade of these banks, initiated on 10 November 2011. In addition, Moody`s has also downgraded by one notch the subordinated debt instruments of the above-mentioned banks. These downgrades reflect the removal of systemic support assumptions from the subordinated debt instruments of South African banks, prompted by Moody`s expectation that authorities will likely make greater use of their resolution tools to allow burden sharing with subordinated bondholders. Ratings affected by today`s action. The Global Local Currency long-term deposit rating and the long-term national- scale deposit rating have been downgraded to A2 and Aa2.za, from A1 and Aa1.za, respectively and have been both left on review for possible downgrade. With regards to the bank`s EMTN programme, the provisional foreign-currency senior unsecured debt rating has been downgraded to (P)A2 from (P)A1. Any issued foreign-currency senior unsecured debt has been downgraded to A2 from A1. The provisional foreign-currency subordinated and junior subordinated debt ratings under its EMTN programme have also been downgraded to (P)Baa1 and (P)Baa2, from (P)A2 and (P)Baa1 respectively. All ratings have been left on review for possible downgrade. The C- BFSR (stable outlook), the P-1 short-term local-currency deposit rating, the A3 long-term foreign-currency deposit rating (negative outlook), the P-2 short-term foreign-currency deposit rating and the P-1.za national-scale short- term deposit rating, all remain unaffected. United Towers (Proprietary) Ltd (subsidiary and preference shares vehicle of Absa Bank Limited) The long-term national-scale issuer rating has been downgraded to A1.za from Aa3.za, due to the downgrade of the parent bank`s Global Local Currency long- term deposit rating that guarantees United Towers` preference share obligations. The rating was also placed on review for possible downgrade. The P-1.za short-term national-scale issuer rating remains unaffected. 29 February 2012 Debt sponsor Absa Capital (the investment banking division of Absa Bank Limited, affiliated with Barclays Capital) Date: 29/02/2012 16:32:01 Supplied by www.sharenet.co.za Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited (`JSE`). The JSE does not, whether expressly, tacitly or implicitly, represent, warrant or in any way guarantee the truth, accuracy or completeness of the information published on SENS. The JSE, their officers, employees and agents accept no liability for (or in respect of) any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential loss or damage of any kind or nature, howsoever arising, from the use of SENS or the use of, or reliance on, information disseminated through SENS.
