DUBAI (Standard&Poor's) Aug. 4, 2015--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it considers two Tier 1 capital sukuks issued by Saudi Arabia-based The National Commercial Bank (NCB; A+/Negative/A-1) to have intermediate equity content. One sukuk is for Saudi Arabian riyal (SAR) 1 billion (about $266 million) and the other, SAR2 billion (about $533 million). Our assessment indicates that these instruments comply with the conditions in our criteria "Bank Hybrid Capital And Nondeferrable Subordinated Debt Methodology And Assumptions," published Jan. 29, 2015, on RatingsDirect. More specifically, the terms and conditions of these instruments state that: NCB has the ability to suspend periodic distribution payments at its own discretion and that such a suspension is not regarded as a
