Fitch maintains Coface Ratings on Rating Watch Negative

Fitch has maintained all the ratings of Coface SA and its operating subsidiaries on Rating Watch Negative, with the exception of the short-term ratings of Coface SA, which has been affirmed at 'F1'.
In Fitch’s press release, the rating agency aims “to resolve the Rating Watch Negative after the publication of 1H21 results, when we expect to have greater visibility of the pandemic’s impact on the development of insolvencies owing to general economic weakness, the extent of availability of government-support schemes to the credit insurance sector in 2021 and the impact of these factors on the group’s financial performance”.
The rating agency continues to view “Coface’s capitalisation as very strong and supportive of ratings, which we expect to remain the case in 2021” and believe that “Coface’s business profile will remain intact in the near term”.
Fitch’s affirmation of the short-term ratings of Coface SA is based on the view that the likelihood of a downgrade of more than one notch of Coface SA’s long-term ratings is low under their ratings case assumptions.