St Laurence Mortgages receives a B3 credit rating

29 October 2004

St Laurence Mortgages receives a B3 credit rating from Rapid Ratings

St Laurence Mortgages Limited (SLM) has been given a B3 credit rating and recognised as investment grade by international corporate ratings agency Rapid Ratings.

A B3 credit rating indicates that the company is operating at between 65 – 70% of its potential. A Credit Rating of B3 suggests that the business of St Laurence Mortgages Limited is of reasonably good quality and that, with respect to the risk of non-payment of corporate debts and/or the degree of risk of insolvency, the company is a moderate risk and more subject to fluctuations in market conditions.

This is the first credit rating for SLM. It remains in place until October 2005 unless there is a material change in the company.

Rapid Ratings (RR) noted that, SLM has been performing at a very high level of financial efficiency, while operating at a high-risk end of the loans market. Operational management of the business is generally good to better than average and it has some good tools to manage the risks of its business in terms of personnel, loans management skills and processes. Its business model is generally sound. It has grown quite rapidly in recent times and strategic management is moderate but improving.

This credit rating is based on a combination of (1) a software-based quantitative rating of A4 derived from running the financials of SLM through Rapid Ratings’ web-based global corporate credit rating service and (2) an extensive qualitative credit assessment process. A downwards adjustment of 3 rating grades was required to the quantitative rating to reflect the additional assessment undertaken during the qualitative credit assessment.

Rapid Ratings has offices in Wellington, Brisbane, Sydney, Singapore, Toronto and New York and rates companies in NZ, Australia, Singapore, Canada, the US, and the UK. Overall it provides ratings on about 15,000 listed companies.

ENDS

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