Fitch Ratings has withdrawn its ratings for Al-Watany Bank of Egypt (AWB) at the request of the bank's management. At the time of the withdrawal, AWB's Support rating was 5.
At the same time, Fitch's associate, Nile Rating, has withdrawn AWB's National Long- and Short-term ratings of F3 and BBB-, which were on RatingWatch Negative.
In Fitch’s March AWB rating action, the agency expressed concern over the bank’s weakening profitability, asset quality and capital adequacy trends. For the nine months ending September 2002 profitability was 67 percent lower than for the corresponding year and Fitch's expected that reported profitability would show further weakness.
AWB is a small bank that has seen rapid growth during the past few years. Ranked 17th in Egypt in terms of total banking system assets with market shares of sector deposits and loans of just above one percent each, it offers commercial banking services to the SME market, traditionally its core business. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
