... Bank (Egypt) S.A.E's (CIB) Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) is driven by its Viability Rating (VR). The VR reflects CIB's solid franchise, healthy profitability, capitalisation above peers' and stable asset quality. Its financial metrics are notably less volatile than peers'. CIB's VR also considers a challenging operating environment and is constrained by its significant exposure to sovereign debt, which means that its risk profile is strongly correlated with that of the Egyptian sovereign. Challenging Operating Environment: The Egyptian pound lost about half of its value against the US dollar after it was floated in November 2016. This has improved foreign-currency (FC) liquidity, which was previously controlled by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) via auctions, creating a backlog of foreign-currency requirements for corporates. The operating environment is improving but economic activity is expected to remain subdued given the high...
