Fitch affirms Doha Bank's ratings

Fitch Ratings has today affirmed Qatar-based Doha Bank's (DB) Individual rating at 'C' and Support rating at '1'. Fitch has not conducted a full rating review on DB and, therefore, has not assigned Long and Short-term foreign currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) to the bank.

The Support rating reflects DB's systemic importance to Qatar and, therefore, the extremely high probability of support available from the Qatari authorities, if ever required. DB's Individual rating considers its strong commercial franchise in Qatar, robust financial performance in recent periods and strategy of expansion and diversification.

Factors constraining the Individual rating are fast credit growth, tightening capital ratios and DB's current reliance on an undiversified economy.

DB was created in 1979 and is Qatar's third-largest bank. The bank offers retail and corporate banking services in addition to Islamic banking and trade finance. Listed on the Doha Securities Market, its ownership is widely spread among mainly local investors (no single shareholder owns more than 2 per cent of capital).

DB is more internationally focused than its peers with branches in New York and Dubai and representative offices in China, Singapore, Turkey and Japan. It recently acquired a branch licence in Kuwait and a brokerage firm in India. Locally, DB has a 31-branch network supported by a range of alternative delivery channels. (Reuters)