Riyahd - Shairkat Mubasher:  The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) announced in a press release that Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has reaffirmed its credit rating as a Long-Term Issuer at 'Aa2' with a Stable outlook.

The rating reflects the ample liquidity of the energy-focused multilateral financial institution to cover upcoming net cash. This comes as a result of its well-diversified funding structure and shareholder support from callable capital, and strong enforcement measures.

“We are proud that Moody’s has reaffirmed our ‘Aa2’ rating. This is a testament to our strong governance and risk management and is reinforced by the confidence of our partners and other stakeholders in our ability to overcome challenges and seize opportunities as they arise. In line with our strategy, we are committed to transforming our current credit-negative exposure to the global carbon transition into a credit-positive exposure by potentially expanding our portfolio in carbon-reducing sectors over time,” Acting Chief Risk Officer & Head of Credit Risk at APICORP, Mehdi Z. Rizvi, stated.

According to the release, APICORP's asset quality remains unaffected despite of the credit challenges it faced, including the geopolitical environment in borrower countries and high portfolio and shareholder risks arising from the global carbon transition, thanks to its strong corporate governance and risk management practices.  

The release pointed out that Moody’s rating shows corporation’s return on equity, which averaged 5.6%, three percentage above the median. Furthermore, the release stated that the average return on assets was 1.8% in 2022, in line with the corporation’s 10-year average (2013-2022), above its peers' averages.

Along with Moody’s ‘Aa2’ rating, APICORP also holds ratings of ‘AA’ and ‘AA-’ from Fitch and S&P Global, the release elaborated.