DBRS Downgrades National Asset Management Limited’s Guaranteed Senior Debt to A (low), Trend Neg.

DBRS Inc. (DBRS) today has downgraded the Guaranteed Senior Unsecured Debt issued by the National Asset Management Limited (NAML) to A (low) from “A”. The trend on the rating is Negative. 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. This rating action follows DBRS’s downgrade of the Republic of Ireland to A (low) with a Negative trend.

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 had acquired EUR 71.2 billion of loans for a consideration of EUR 30.2 billion, representing a discount of 58%.

Notes:
All figures are in EUR unless otherwise noted.

For further information related to DBRS’s rating of the Republic of Ireland please see the related press release under Related Research.

The principal applicable methodology is the Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organisations. Other methodologies used include the Enhanced Methodology for Bank Ratings – Intrinsic and Support Assessments and Rating Sovereign Governments. All of these can be found on the DBRS website under Methodologies.

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

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

For additional information on this rating, please refer to the linking document under Related Research.