...- Spain-based Abanca Corporacion Bancaria S.A. has announced that it has made an offer to acquire a 95% stake in Portugal-based Eurobic S.A. for an undisclosed price. - The acquisition is subject to the satisfactory completion of Abanca's due diligence process and required regulatory authorizations. - While it may fit well in Abanca's positioning strategy in Portugal, Eurobic's creditworthiness is weaker than that of Abanca and extracting value from the acquisition will pose managerial challenges, delaying any upgrade of Abanca. - We are therefore revising to stable from positive the outlook on our '##+' long-term rating on Abanca. We are affirming the long- and short-term ratings at '##+/B'. - The stable outlook indicates that over the next 12-18 months, we expect Abanca to focus on integrating Eurobic, and extracting value from its other recently acquired banks in Portugal and Spain. We also expect the impact on Abanca's capitalization and risk profile to be manageable....
