Bulletin: 'AA-' Rating On Westpac Banking Corp. Solidified By A$3.5 Billion Capital Raising

SYDNEY (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 14, 2015--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that Westpac Banking Corp.'s (WBC) announcement of a A$3.5 billion capital raising is supportive to its 'AA-/A-1+' issuer credit ratings. The outlook on the bank's rating remains stable. CAPITAL RAISING VIA AN ENTITLEMENT OFFER We note that the approximately A$3.5 billion capital raising through an entitlement offer will propel WBC's common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio by about 100bps and above WBC's preferred CET1 capital ratio range of 8.75%-9.25%, in line with the bank's previously foreshadowed intent to strengthen its capital. We project that the entitlement offer, combined with other recent capital initiatives such as the dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) and partial sale of BT Investment

...(Editor's Note: In the bulletin published earlier today, we misstated the capital raising amount in the first paragraph. The correct number is A$3.5 billion. A corrected version follows.) SYDNEY (Standard & Poor's) Oct. 14, 2015--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that Westpac Banking Corp.'s (WBC) announcement of a A$3.5 billion capital raising is supportive to its '##-/A-1+' issuer credit ratings. The outlook on the bank's rating remains stable. CAPITAL RAISING VIA AN ENTITLEMENT OFFER We note that the approximately A$3.5 billion capital raising through an entitlement offer will propel WBC's common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio by about 100bps and above WBC's preferred CET1 capital ratio range of 8.75%-9.25%, in line with the bank's previously foreshadowed intent to strengthen its capital. We project that the entitlement offer, combined with other recent capital initiatives such as the dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) and partial sale of BT Investment Management (in total...

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