Capital Intelligence (CI), the international credit rating agency, today announced that it has affirmed the Foreign Currency ratings of Morocco's Credit du Maroc at BBB- (Long-term) and A3 (Short-term), which are at the sovereign ceiling for Morocco, and the Financial Strength rating at BBB-. The Support rating was maintained at 2. The Outlook for all ratings is Stable.
Credit du Maroc (CM) was established in 1963, when the 34-year-old branch of France's Crdit Lyonnais (CL) was incorporated as Crdit Lyonnais Maroc, adopting its present style in 1966. The Bank was founded as a joint venture wherein local investors, including the then state-owned BMCE, held a minority interest. Current ownership consists principally of France's Crdit Agricole SA. Wafa Assurance, one of the largest Moroccan insurance companies and owned by Attijariwafa Bank (AWB), holds a minority stake. In late 2008, Crdit Agricole SA signed an agreement with Morocco's Attijariwafa Bank to sell its stakes in some African operations to Attijariwafa. The transaction included selling assets in Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, Senegal and some other countries for an amount of EUR250mn. In turn, Crdit Agricole purchased another 24% of Credit du Maroc, held by Wafa Assurance, to raise its share in CM to 77%.
CM maintains a sound overall financial position. The Bank has an adequate liquidity and funding profile; funding is nearly all sourced from domestic retail customer deposits and the base of liquid assets is reasonable. The expansion of deposits, particularly low-cost deposits, has been difficult over the past year or so and this created some pressure on the Bank's margins. Despite this, profitability to end-June 2009 was good, aided by increased interest income from rising asset volumes and an improved operating cost base. On the negative side, non-performing loans rose swiftly in H1 2009, the first increase in bad loans for some time, as CM's loan portfolio came under some pressure due to the more challenging operating environment. Despite this, the Bank's overall level of NPLs is reasonable and adequate provisioning coverage is maintained. In 2008, the Bank's capital base was boosted by a subordinated debt issue which raised the capital adequacy ratio to a more reasonable level.
CM receives management and operational support from its French parent, Crdit Agricole, which aids the Bank's activities. With assets of MAD40,233mn (USD4,967mn) at end-June 2009, CM is the smallest in a field of six main Moroccan banks, with a market share of about 6.5%. CM has typically concentrated on lending to individuals and large companies. However, it is expanding its retail banking activities. The Bank operates a network of over 260 branches in Morocco, two branches and one representative office in France, and three representative offices in the Netherlands and Italy.
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Contact:
Darren Stubing
darren.stubing@ciratings.com
Tel: 357 25 342300
Tom Kenzik
tom.kenzik@ciratings.com
Tel: 357 25 342300
Press Release 2010
