Rating Release
Agusto & Co. hereby affirms the ‘A’ rating assigned to FBNQuest Merchant Bank Limited, with a stable outlook
The rating expires on 30 June 2023.
Agusto & Co. hereby affirms the “A” rating assigned to FBNQuest Merchant Bank Limited (‘FBNQ MB’ or ‘the Bank’) and assigns an ESG score of “2” to the Bank. The rating reflects FBNQ MB’s good brand equity upheld by the affiliation with FBN Holdings Plc, one of Nigeria’s largest financial holding companies with interests in commercial banking, trusteeship, asset management, stockbroking and insurance brokerage. The rating also considers the Bank’s good capitalisation, acceptable asset quality and experienced management team. However, constraining these positive rating factors are the weak profitability, obligor concentration and high funding costs amidst the prevailing macroeconomic headwinds. The ESG score underpins our view that the environmental, social and governance issues have minimal contribution to the rating assigned to the Bank.