S&P puts NDB in ‘exceptional position’

STANDARD & Poor’s latest AA+ long-term and A-1+ short-term ratings on the New Development Bank will better position the lender to tap competitively-priced financial resources and cement its access to global financial markets.

The Shanghai-based multilateral development bank received on Wednesday the AA+ long-term and A-1+ short-term issuer credit ratings with a stable outlook from S&P Global Ratings.

The AA+ rating ranks the second-highest in S&P’s rating system, reflecting the agency’s outlook of NDB’s strengths.

K. V. Kamath, president of NDB, said the AA+ ratings from S&P will put the bank in “an exceptional position” to mobilize financial resources at competitive rates and will greatly enhance the bank’s lending capacity to their members.

The ratings reflected S&P’s opinion that NDB will establish itself “as a catalyst” in reducing the infrastructure deficits faced by BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) members, S&P noted in its press release.

S&P cited NDB’s robust shareholder support as a key rating factor underpinning its assessment of the multinational development institution’s strong business profile.

Set up in 2015, NDB lends to infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies.