Fitch cuts International Bills view to negative

Fitch Ratings said it revised the outlook on International Bills Finance Corp.'s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating and national long-term rating to negative from stable. The agency also affirmed its long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating at BBB, short-term foreign-currency issuer default rating at F3, national long-term rating at A+(twn) and national short-term rating at F1(twn).

This follows Fitch's downgrade of two asset-backed commercial paper programs for which International Bills acts as a committed liquidity provider. Simultaneously, the agency has affirmed the company's ratings, as follows:

The outlook revision reflects Fitch's concern that subsequent credit losses arising from the asset-backed commercial paper programs (of which NT$4.3 billion relates to relatively high-risk collateralized debt obligations), and the economic slowdown resulting from the ongoing U.S.-led credit crisis, could negatively impact the company's new business writing capacity and financial performance in 2008 and 2009.

The agency noted, however, that even after assuming very hefty losses on commercial paper, the company's overall credit profile would remain quite comfortable.

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