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Strategies & Market Trends : Telebras (TBH) & Brazil -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Fancy who wrote (362)	11/10/1997 8:04:00 PM
From: Steve Fancy	Respond to of 22640

Credit agencies see no change in Brazil rating Reuters, Monday, November 10, 1997 at 18:54 MIAMI, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Despite the volatility in Brazil's markets and the severe belt-tightening announced Monday, analysts for two credit rating agencies said they anticipated no change in Brazil's credit ratings. "We don't expect to have any changes or downgrades in the ratings," Ursula Wilhelm, an associate director who rates Latin American banks for Standard & Poor's, told Reuters after addressing the ING Barings Latin America Conference in Miami. S&P upgraded Brazil's foreign currency rating to BB-minus and its local currency to BB-plus with a stable outlook in April. Wilhelm said that the current volatility was reflected in those ratings. Wilhelm said that rising interest rates could affect Brazil's banks because they would devalue the quality of the bank's assets. She also said the over-valuation of Brazil's currency also was cause for concern because "they have a large portion of their assets in foreign currency." However, she said, "the impact of higher interest rates is already factored into the rating." Jaime Sanz, rating analyst for Latin America for Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co, which rates Brazil BB-minus with a stable outlook, said "we feel very comfortable with the outlook that we have. Of course, we'll be watching closely, but we really feel the institution (Brazil's banking system) is stable at this point." "As soon as we see fundamental changes, we will act. In the case of Brazil, we haven't seen that yet," he said. A representative of Moody's Investors Service did not appear with the panel at the conference. Copyright 1997, Reuters News Service