Fitch affirms Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria at 'BBB', removes bank from Rating Watch Negative

The outlook on the rating is negative, reflecting the medium-term risk to Raiffeisen Bank International's credit profile and its ability to provide support to its Bulgarian subsidiary stemming from the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis, Fitch Ratings said in a statement on Wednesday.

Fitch also said in its statement:

"KEY RATING DRIVERS

IDRS AND SUPPORT RATING

RBBG's IDR and Support Rating (SR) reflect our view of a high probability that RBI would support its subsidiary in case of need. This reflects the strategic importance of Bulgaria and the wider central and eastern Europe (CEE) region to the parent, strong synergies underpinned by a record in supporting the parent's objectives and a high level of management and operational integration. In our view, reputational risk to RBI would be high if its Bulgarian subsidiary were to default. We believe any required support to RBBG would be immaterial to the parent's ability to provide it.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

IDRS and SR

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to positive rating action/upgrade:

Improvement in the ability of RBI to support RBBG, while maintaining its strong propensity to support the bank. Given our expectation that the risks on the parent's credit profile are skewed to the downside, an upgrade of RBBG's IDR is currently unlikely.

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to negative rating action/downgrade:

Our view that RBI's ability or propensity to support the bank has weakened, although the propensity is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future."