TRIS Rating Assigns “T1+” Short-term Debt Rating And Affirms “AAA/Stable” Medium-term Debt Ratings for “HLTC”
TRIS Rating Co., Ltd. has assigned a “T1+” rating to Bt1,000 million short-term guaranteed debentures of Honda Leasing (Thailand) Co., Ltd.’s (HLTC or Issuer). At the same time, TRIS Rating has affirmed the “AAA” ratings for HLTC’s existing medium-term debentures with “stable” outlook.
These debentures are guaranteed by the Issuer’s parent company, Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (HATC or Guarantor), which is a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (HMC), a company rated “A+/Positive” by Standard and Poor’s (S&P) and “Aa3/Stable” by Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s). The ratings of these debentures reflect the unconditional and irrevocable guarantee by HATC, whose creditworthiness is enhanced by the keep well agreement provided by its ultimate parent, HMC. TRIS Rating takes into consideration the keep well agreement between HATC and HMC, the strategic importance of HATC as a subsidiary of HMC, and the strengths of HATC in terms of its competitive position in the Thai automotive industry, healthy financial profile, and proven ability to meet the global standard of the Honda Group. HATC’s strengths are partially offset by its limited product line because of the strategy to focus on the passenger car and sport utility vehicle (SUV) segments.
The “stable” outlook of the guaranteed debentures of HLTC reflects the credit profile of HATC whose creditworthiness is enhanced by the keep well agreement provided by its ultimate parent company, HMC.