...September 9, 2019 HONG KONG (S&P Global Ratings) Sept. 9, 2019--S&P Global Ratings today assigned its '##' long-term issue rating to a proposed issuance of additional tier-1 (AT1) undated capital securities by The Bank of East Asia Limited (BEA: A-/Stable/A-2). We also assigned our '##' issue rating to the undated capital securities tranche (qualifying as regulatory AT1) of the US$6 billion medium-term notes program from which the proposed issuance will be drawn down. The issue rating is subject to our review of the final issuance documentation. Our rating on the issuance is four notches below our assessment of BEA's stand-alone credit profile (SACP) of '###+' to reflect our view on the following features: - One notch because the notes are contractually subordinated; - Two notches because we expect the notes to have discretionary and mandatory nonpayment clauses leading to coupon nonpayment, and the regulator classifies them as tier-1 regulatory capital; and - One notch because the notes...
