Coronation Merchant Bank’s Management Has High Degree of Credibility—Fitch

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

A renowned global rating agency, Fitch Ratings, says the management team of Nigeria-based Coronation Merchant Bank Limited has demonstrated “a high degree of credibility.”

In a statement to announce the rating of the bank’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘B-‘ with a negative outlook, Fitch said the company’s “strategy is well defined although execution could be hampered under current difficult operating conditions.”

In the statement made available to Business Post on Monday, it was stated that apart from the management quality being “a relative strength,” it was equipped with “experience and depth commensurate with the complexity of the business.”

The rating agency noted that the company has good asset quality, reporting a zero impaired loans (IFRS 9 Stage 3)/gross ratio at end-1H20, which has also been the case for the last four financial years.

“This reflects the bank’s lower risk business model and risk management capability,” it noted.

“Given the severity of the economic crisis, we expect a modest rise in Stage 2 and Stage 3 loans over the next 18 months.

“Asset quality risks are exacerbated by very high credit concentrations by the borrower and significant foreign-currency-denominated trade loans (forming 60% of total loans at end-1H20),” the statement said.

It was noted that bank’s viability rating (VR) was put at ‘b-‘, while the national long-term rating was put at ‘BBB(nga)’ to reflect Nigeria’s (B/Negative) challenging and volatile operating environment, which influences the firm’s financial and non-financial rating factors.

“The negative outlook on Coronation Merchant Bank’s long-term IDR reflects our view that prevailing operating conditions create downside risks to our assessment of the bank’s funding and liquidity profile as well as pressure on asset quality and earnings, but there is a degree of tolerance in these factors,” it said.

Fitch said in the statement that the lender’s primary risk exposure is to short-term (up to one year) self-liquidating corporate loans and traditional trade finance and Nigerian treasury bills.

“This is balanced by the bank’s good management of credit and market risks. Operational risk is inherent in the business but losses are low,” it said.

It was stated that the bank is well-capitalised, reporting Tier 1 and total capital adequacy ratios of 16.6 per cent and 17.2 per cent, respectively, at end-1H20.

“However, capital ratios have modestly declined from end-2019 due to fast growth and currency devaluation. Fitch expects further modest capital pressure to come from lower earnings,” it said.

The statement said the company’s corporate deposits are highly concentrated by name and around 17 per cent were in foreign currency at end-1H20.

“Given the nature of its trade finance business, the bank has a reliance on short-term foreign currency funding (around 25 per cent of its total foreign currency funding), which could decline if sovereign risks rise, leading to pressure on foreign currency liquidity.

“Balance sheet liquidity is underpinned by the short-term nature of the bank’s trade finance assets and large holdings of liquid assets. The bank is highly liquid in local currency but conversion to foreign currency is challenging under current market conditions,” Fitch said.

Coronation Merchant Bank, a leading independent merchant bank, was established in 2015, and it engages in corporate and trade finance, domestic capital markets and investment banking.

But its funding structure is a relative rating weakness as the bank is funded entirely by price and confidence sensitive wholesale funding, including corporate deposits, short-term bank borrowings and commercial paper. Around 37 per cent of the firm’s non-equity funding was in foreign currency at end-1H20.