BDO unit debt issue gets PRS 2- rating

Local debt watcher Philippine Rating Services Corp. (PhilRatings) has assigned a PRS 2 minus rating on the P15 billion worth of short-term debt to be issued by the Henry Sy group’s financial services arm this year.

In a statement, PhilRatings said the short-term commercial paper (STCP) to be issued by BDO Leasing and Finance Inc. was rated similarly with the P12 billion in SCTPs issued last year.

“A short-term issue rating of PRS 2 is defined as: above average [strong] capability for payment of commercial paper issue on both interest and principal,” PhilRatings said Monday.

“Capitalization characteristics, while still appropriate, may be more affected by external conditions. Ample alternate liquidity is maintained,” the firm said. It added that a plus or a minus sign can be included to further qualify the rating.

PhilRatings said it based the grade on available information and projections at the time that the rating review was ongoing.

In arriving at the rating, PhilRatings considered BDO Leasing’s solid market position and business synergy with its parent company, BDO Unibank (BDO); its strengthening and expanding loan portfolio which offsets margin compression, improved asset quality, as well as sufficient capitalization.

BDO Leasing is one of the major players in the Philippine financing industry.

PhilRatings noted that to fund asset growth, BDO Leasing continued to increase the proportion of debt usage over its total capitalization.