Thursday, November 24, 2011

S&P buys 4.9% of RAM Holdings from ADB

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 24): Standard & Poor's Ratings Services is buying a 4.9% stake in RAM Holdings Bhd (RAM) from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

S&P said on Thursday that the ratings agency and RAM had signed an affiliation agreement in 2004 and the two companies have since forged a strong relationship.

S&P executive managing director and region head, Chang Yu-Tsung described the acquisition as an 'exciting step forward' for S&P.

'Malaysia is a very important market for us and we believe that deeper cooperation with RAM will allow us to better combine our global capabilities with RAM's excellent local knowledge and skills,' Chang said.

Following the acquisition, both parties will enhance their cooperation by sharing analytical best practices and research, joint seminars, contributions to industry sector reports and expanded career opportunities for staff.

As for ADB, its'' director of the private sector operations department, Robert van Zwieten said: "Credit ratings are essential to helping private firms get the funding they need to grow. ADB invested in RAM in 1990 to help the company to grow to maturity and now considers that goal to be achieved.'

S&P said the acquisition of a minority stake in RAM was the latest in a series of its initiatives across Asia-Pacific in recent years.

In April 2011, Standard & Poor's launched a Greater China scale that supports the wider use of the renminbi for offshore bond issuance. The scale complements S&P's Asean rating scale to provide investors with a risk benchmark within an Asean context.

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