Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 17
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:
PASHA Bank, the biggest commercial bank of Azerbaijan, plans to increase lending by more than 25 percent in 2018, according to the report of the Fitch Ratings, an international rating agency.
On Aug. 16, Fitch Ratings affirmed Azerbaijan-based Pasha Bank's (PB) Long-Term Issuer-Default Rating (IDR) at 'B+', the Outlook is Stable.
The ratings reflect the bank's reasonable financial metrics and systemic importance (market shares of 13 percent by total assets and 18 percent by deposits at end-1Q18).
In the second quarter of 2018, the loan portfolio of the bank amounted to almost 1.04 billion manats, which is a 6 percent increase over the quarter. Non-performing loans (NPLs, defined as loans over 90 days overdue) increased to around 15 percent of loans at end-1H18, from around 13 percent at end-1Q17.
The loan portfolio of PASHA Bank doesn’t exceed one third of its all assets.
Assets outside of the loan book are of good quality, at end-2017, most of interbank placements and investments in debt securities were rated 'BB+' and higher, Fitch said.
The rating actions are as follows:
Long-Term IDR: affirmed at 'B+'; Outlook Stable
Short-Term IDR: affirmed at 'B'
Viability Rating: affirmed at 'b+'
Support Rating: affirmed at '5'
Support Rating Floor: affirmed at 'No Floor'
PASHA Bank was established in 2007.
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