Fitch withdraws Afreximbank’s ratings, cuts credit assessment to junk

Fitch withdraws Afreximbank’s ratings

Fitch Ratings has withdrawn its ratings on the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) for commercial reasons, saying it will no longer provide ratings or analytical coverage on the Cairo-based multilateral lender.

In a statement on Wednesday, the global credit rating agency said the withdrawal follows the termination of its rating relationship with Afreximbank, days after the bank disclosed that it had ended its engagement with Fitch following a dispute.

The development adds to scrutiny of Afrexim’s role in sovereign debt workouts across Africa, as governments, multilateral lenders and rating agencies continue to debate the treatment of regional development banks in debt restructuring frameworks.

Alongside the withdrawal, Fitch cut its assessment of the bank’s credit profile to junk status, downgrading the bank’s long-term issuer default rating to ‘BB+’ from ‘BBB-’, with a stable outlook.

“The downgrade reflects our revision of Afreximbank’s policy importance risk to ‘medium’ from ‘low’ following the announcement of an agreement on Ghana’s debt to the bank in the context of Ghana’s broader restructuring,” it said.

The agency added that the revision prompted it to reassess Afreximbank’s business profile risk to ‘high’ from ‘medium’, resulting in a weaker overall business environment score of -3, compared with -2 previously.

In December, Afreximbank and Ghana said they had reached an agreement in principle on the restructuring of a $750 million sovereign loan owed to the lender. The International Monetary Fund subsequently said the agreement was consistent with the comparability of treatment principle under Ghana’s official creditor committee.

“We view this as evidence that Afrexim did not benefit from its preferred creditor status (PCS),” Fitch said. “The bank’s inclusion in Ghana’s restructuring underlines its weakening policy importance, in our view.”

Fitch noted its assessment of the bank’s ‘high’ business profile risk underpins a similarly high risk evaluation of the bank’s governance and strategy. It cited Afreximbank’s exposure to countries with weak credit quality, low income per capita and elevated political risk as key constraints on its operating environment.

Afreximbank has long argued that it enjoys preferred creditor status, which would shield it from losses when sovereign shareholders restructure their debts. However, both Ghana and Zambia have insisted that the lender provide debt relief on terms comparable to those agreed with official bilateral creditors.

Bunmi holds a degree in Economics from the University of Lagos and has over eight years of experience in content writing and journalism.

Her career spans roles as a financial and business journalist at BusinessDay Media and TechCabal, and as Head of Research at SBM Intelligence, an Africa-focused market intelligence and strategic consulting firm.

She also served as Editor at Finance in Africa, a subsidiary of Businessfront and is currently Assistant Editor, Finance (Africa), at BusinessDay.

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