Moody's affirms deposit ratings of SABB, withdraws Alawwal Bank ratings

Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday affirmed the long and short-term local and foreign currency deposit ratings of Saudi British Bank (SABB) at A1/P-1.

The ratings agency also upgraded the long and short-term local and foreign currency deposit ratings of Alawwal Bank to A1/P-1 from A3/P-2, a statement said.

At the same time, Moody's has also affirmed the baseline credit assessment (BCA) of SABB at a3, adding that the outlook on SABB's long-term deposit ratings remains stable.

The outlook on Alawwal's long-term deposit ratings was changed to stable from positive, in line with the outlook for SABB. Subsequent to the action, Moody's also said that it will withdraw the ratings of Alawwal.

Moody’s said the rating action follows the completion of the merger between the two banks on 16 June 2019 where SABB remained as the surviving entity absorbing all the assets and liabilities of Alawwal which ceased to exist following the merger.

SABB and Alawwal announced the completion of their merger on June 16, 2019, whereby SABB remains the operating entity and has received all liabilities and assets of Alawwal, which has ceased to exist.

In exchange, Alawwal's shareholders have received 0.48535396 SABB shares for each Alawwal share.