SINGAPORE, April 17 — Standard & Poor’s Rating Services does not revise its view on Malaysia’s sovereign rating following its successful pricing of the global sukuk yesterday.
S&P had affirmed its ‘A-‘ long-term and ‘A-2’ short-term foreign currency sovereign credit ratings on Malaysia.
At the same time, it also affirmed its ‘A’ long-term and ‘A-1’ short-term local currency ratings on Malaysia.
The outlook on the long-term rating is stable.
S&P also affirmed its ‘axAAA/axA-1+’ Asean regional scale rating on Malaysia.
“Our current view still stands,” a S&P credit analyst told Bernama today.
The rating services was asked to comment on the success of Malaysia’s US$1.5 billion (RM5.4 billion) sukuk issuance yesterday.
Malaysia’s US$1.5 billion sukuk was oversubscribed, attracting an aggregate interest of over US$9 billion from a combined investor base of over 450 accounts.
The issuance consist of a US$1 billion 10-year and US$500 million 30-year benchmark Trust Certificates (sukuk).
In March, Fitch Ratings indicated that there was a more than 50 per cent chance that the sovereign would be downgraded from A-.
Instead, S&P said it believes Malaysia’s economy could withstand some weakness in the energy sector owing to its fairly diversified and broad-based growth.
Consequently, S&P revised its macroeconomic projections for Malaysia.
S&P said Malaysia has been proactive in mitigating the fallout of the slump in oil prices.
It said Malaysia’s strong external position, a result of years of current account surpluses, underpinned the ratings. — Bernama
