Fitch: Oversea-Chinese Banking on negative watch

Fitch Ratings said it placed Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.'s long-term and short-term issuer default ratings of AA- and F1+, respectively, and viability rating of AA- on Rating Watch negative.

The agency also placed on negative watch the bank's senior unsecured rating of AA-, along with the F1+ rating on its commercial-paper program, A+ rating on its subordinated lower tier 2 notes and BBB rating on its preference shares.

The negative watch follows news that Oversea-Chinese plans to acquire the entire issued share capital of Wing Hang Bank Ltd., Fitch said.

The negative watch reflects expectations that the acquisition of Wing Hang Bank will increase Oversea-Chinese's exposure to Greater China, where credit and operating risk is higher than in Oversea-Chinese's home market of Singapore, the agency said.

This could potentially lead to deterioration in Oversea-Chinese's credit profile, Fitch said.

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