Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that The Development Bank of Singapore Ltd.'s (DBS Bank; A+/Stable/A-1) recent acquisition of the remaining 28.4% of Hong Kong's Dao Heng Bank Ltd. (DHB; A-/Stable/A-2), through wholly owned subsidiary, DBS Diamond Holdings Ltd., does not affect its ratings on DBS Bank. Standard&Poor's had already factored in this acquisition and its associated goodwill when DBS Bank initiated its initial acquisition of DHB. In accordance with Standard&Poor's normal rating methodology, all goodwill is conservatively deducted against equity when computing capitalization ratios. Based on DBS Group Holdings' (DBSH) financials for the period ended Sept. 30, 2002, the group's ratio of adjusted common equity-to-assets was 8.4%. DBS Bank accounts for the bulk of
