Update: United Bank for Africa Plc

The stable outlook on UBA reflects that on Nigeria (B-/Stable/B). We would lower the ratings on UBA over the next 12 months if we took a similar action on Nigeria. This could happen if we observed increasing risk that Nigeria would lack the capacity to repay its commercial obligations, either due to declining external liquidity or a continued reduction in fiscal flexibility, which would likely affect the banks' access to U.S. dollar liquidity. An improvement of Nigeria's sovereign creditworthiness would likely result in a higher rating for the bank. This could happen if the country's economic performance became much stronger than we expect, or external financing stress proved to be temporary. Environmental and governance factors are negative considerations in our

...Our ratings on United Bank for Africa PLC (UBA) are constrained by the sovereign credit rating on Nigeria. The 'B-/B' long- and short-term issuer credit ratings on UBA are constrained by the foreign currency sovereign credit ratings on Nigeria. The group's stand-alone credit profile of 'b+' reflects the 'b' blended anchor and the bank's strong business position. However, we do not rate Nigerian banks above the sovereign because of the likely direct and indirect influence of sovereign distress on bank operations, including the ability to service foreign currency obligations. We assess UBA's anchor at 'b', reflecting its exposure to a blended African economic risk score. We use our Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment's economic risk and industry risk scores to determine a bank's anchor, the starting point in assigning an issuer credit rating. The group is headquartered in Nigeria but has operations in 19 other countries in Africa. The 'b' anchor is based on our Nigeria industry risk...

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