On Dec. 22, 2015, HTS announced that it is cancelling its share repurchase plan. We therefore raised our forward-looking capital assessment, which has resulted in a higher SACP of 'bbb' from 'bbb-'. Our assessment of potential extraordinary support to HTS from the Shanghai municipal government remains unchanged. Also, we expect HTI to remain a core subsidiary of HTS. We are affirming our 'BBB' long-term and 'A-2' short-term issuer credit ratings on HTS and HTI. We are also affirming our 'cnA-' long-term and 'cnA-2' short-term Greater China regional scale ratings on the China-based securities firm and its Hong Kong-based subsidiary. The negative outlook continues to primarily reflect our view of a negative economic risk trend and heightening industry risk for the
