The uncertainty arising from the conflict in Ukraine, a background of rising inflation and the consequent increase in central bank rates, which has led to a rise in the Euribor, poses a major challenge for all companies, and we are going to have to adapt to a situation with unprecedented causes and difficulties.
Despite the fact that there is not expected to be an imminent recession, the risks to the operational environment and institutions’ credit profiles are “downward-skewed”. With this in mind, the updates applied to our sector by the credit ratings agencies have been made public over the last few weeks.
Accordingly, the credit ratings agency DBRS Morningstar has published its review of UCI, in which it maintains an A (low) rating as a long-term issuer, and a short-term issuer rating of R-1 (low). This rating has remained uncheged since 2018, a fact which underlines UCI’s healthy financial situation and the backing of our shareholders, BNP Paribas and Banco Santander.
In fact, DBRS points out that the recent capital increase is proof of our shareholders’ willingness, confidence and capacity to provide us with capital backing and hence UCI’s credit ratings are several notches higher than usual.
DBRS also points out that UCI’s profitability is highly concentrated in financial margin income, due to it being a financial institution specialising in mortgage lending with a business model backed by a network of efficient and profitable agencies.
Fitch Ratings, for its part, has affirmed the ratings at ‘BBB’ with a stable outlook. The extensive history of financial support from our shareholders Santander and BNPP stands out, on the last occasion to support compliance with the new liquidity requirements introduced in 2022 by the Bank of Spain.
