DBRS Assigns “A” Rating to Senior Debt of National Asset Management Limited, Trend Negative

DBRS Inc. (DBRS) has today assigned an initial rating of “A” with a Negative trend to the Guaranteed Senior Unsecured Debt issued by National Asset Management Limited (NAML). The Guaranteed Senior Unsecured Debt is backed by the unconditional and irrevocable guarantee from the Minister for Finance of Ireland on behalf of the Republic of Ireland. Therefore, the ratings and trend are equalised with the long term foreign and local currency ratings of the Republic of Ireland.

National Asset Management Limited is a special purpose vehicle set up by Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) and is responsible for issuing government guaranteed debt instruments for the purposes of acquiring eligible bank assets. National Asset Management Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Asset Management Agency Investment Limited, which is 51% owned by private investors and 49% owned by NAMA. As of 2 March 2011, NAMA has acquired EUR 71.2 billion of loans for a consideration of EUR 30.2 billion, representing a discount of 58%.

In accordance with the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009, the amount of NAML senior unsecured notes outstanding cannot exceed EUR 51.3 billion. As of 7 March 2011, outstanding senior unsecured notes totaled EUR 28.7 billion.

The last rating action on Ireland was taken on 1 April 2011, when DBRS downgraded Ireland’s long term foreign and local currency ratings to “A” from A (high) and maintained the Negative trend.

Notes:
The principal applicable methodology is Rating Sovereign Governments, which can be found on the DBRS website under Methodologies.

The sources of information used for this rating include the The National Asset Management Agency and The Irish Finance Ministry’s Department of Finance. DBRS considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating was of satisfactory quality.

Lead Analyst: Michael Heydt
Rating Committee Chair: Alan G. Reid
Initial Rating Date: 21 April 2011
Most Recent Rating Update: 21 April 2011

For additional information on the 1 April 2011 rating action on the Republic of Ireland, please refer to the press release linked below.

For additional information on this rating, please refer to the linking document below.