Rating Rationale
March 20, 2019 | Mumbai
Cooperatieve Rabobank U.A.
Rated amount enhanced
 
Rating Action
Rs 2500 Crore Certificate Of Deposit Programme
(Enhanced from Rs.1500 Crore)
CRISIL A1+ (Reaffirmed)
1 crore = 10 million
Refer to annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities
Detailed Rationale

CRISIL has enhanced its rated quantum of certificate of deposits programme of Cooperatieve Rabobank U.A. India operations (Rabobank India) to Rs 2,500 crore from Rs 1,500 crore, and reaffirmed its 'CRISIL A1+' rating on the same.
 
The rating continues to be centrally based on S&P Global Ratings' counterparty ratings of 'A+/Positive/A-1' on Cooperatieve Rabobank UA (Rabobank Nederland). The ratings on Rabobank Nederland reflect the bank's prioritisation of long-term franchise growth over short-term returns, defined medium-term strategy, market leading franchise in the Netherlands, and strong performance of its domestic residential mortgage book. These strengths are partially offset by high reliance on wholesale funding, pressure on earnings because of low interest rate, and susceptibility to regulatory challenges.
 
The rating on Rabobank India reflects expectation of strong support from Rabobank Nederland, and adequate capitalisation. These strengths are partially offset by modest asset quality and earnings profile.

Analytical Approach

The rating on the certificate of deposit programme of Rabobank India continues to be centrally based on S&P Global Ratings' counterparty ratings of 'A+/Positive/A-1' on Rabobank Nederland.

Key Rating Drivers & Detailed Description
Strengths:
* Strong support from Rabobank Nederland: Rabobank India will remain strategically important to, and will receive strong financial, operational, and managerial support from, Rabobank Nederland. The last instance of capital infusion into Rabobank India was of Rs 620 crore in fiscal 2016. Rabobank Nederland is committed to provide capital support to the India operations when required.
 
* Adequate capitalisation: Capitalisation is adequate, reflected in adjusted networth of Rs 1,010.8 crore as on December 31, 2018 (Rs 925.72 crore as on March 31, 2018) supported by capital infusion by Rabobank Nederland. Rabobank India had a tier-I capital adequacy ratio (CAR) and overall CAR of 30.51% and 31.12%, respectively, as on December 31, 2018 (26.48% and 27.29%, respectively, as on March 31, 2018).
 
Weakness
* Modest, albeit improving, asset quality and earnings profile: Asset quality is below average. Indian operations reported 3.7% gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as on December 31, 2018 on account of write-offs (6.9% as on March 31, 2018). While there were no fresh slippages to NPAs reported in fiscal 2018, Rabobank India wrote off bad assets worth Rs 206 crore in fiscal 2018. Asset quality came under increased pressure in fiscal 2017 because of delinquencies in a few corporate accounts. The branch had nil net NPAs as on March 31, 2018, driven by higher provisions.
 
Earnings profile of the branch has improved, indicated by profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 851 crore for the nine months ended of fiscal 2019 against a loss of Rs 79 crore during the corresponding period in the previous fiscal. Pressure on asset quality had impacted earnings  Rabobank India reporting a net loss of Rs 244 crore primarily because of high provisioning cost (including of NPAs) of Rs 308 crore in fiscal 2018. Improvement in profitability over the medium term will be driven by expected better asset quality leading to lower provisioning cost.
Liquidity

Liquidity profile of Rabobank India is comfortable with positive cumulative mismatch in all the buckets up to 1 year as per the asset liability mismatch statement as on March 31, 2018. Further, the branch operations also have support in the form of funding lines from the head office.

About the Bank

Rabobank India is the wholesale banking and international retail banking division of Rabobank Nederland, carrying out business in and outside the Netherlands. Rabobank Nederland is one of the largest banking organisations in the Netherlands, with consolidated assets of EUR 607 billion as on June 30, 2018.
 
Rabobank India received the branch banking operations licence from the Reserve Bank of India on March 24, 2011, and commenced operations in July 2011. The Indian branch received Rs 600 crore from the head office as initial capital. Rabobank Nederland infused an additional Rs 620 crore in fiscal 2016 taking the total capital to Rs 1220 crore as on March 31, 2018. Rabobank Nederland has been operating in the financial services sector in India since 1998, primarily through Rabo India Finance and Rabo India Securities Pvt Ltd.
 
The India operations supplement Rabobank Nederland's presence by offering banking products. Rabobank India offers short and medium-term lending products, trade financing products, transactional banking services, working capital financing, liquidity management products, foreign exchange, and other hedging solutions.
 
Scale of lending operations remains small, with advances of Rs 3,406 crore and total assets of Rs 5,095 crore as on December 31, 2018 (3182 crore and Rs 4884 crore, respectively as on March 31, 2018).

1As per provisional financials.

Key Financial Indicators
As on / for the nine months ended December 31 Unit 2018 2017
Total assets Rs Cr. 5094.9 3798.1
Total income Rs Cr. 299.7 198.3
Profit after tax Rs Cr. 84.6 (79.1)
Gross NPA % 3.6 11.2
Overall capital adequacy ratio % 31.1 19.0
Return on assets % 2.3 (3.9)

Any other information: Not applicable

Note on complexity levels of the rated instrument:
CRISIL complexity levels are assigned to various types of financial instruments. The CRISIL complexity levels are available on www.crisil.com/complexity-levels. Users are advised to refer to the CRISIL complexity levels for instruments that they consider for investment. Users may also call the Customer Service Helpdesk with queries on specific instruments.
Annexure - Details of Instrument(s)
ISIN Name of Instrument Date of
Allotment
Coupon
Rate (%)
Maturity
Date
Issue Size
(Rs cr)
Rating assigned
with outlook
NA Certificates of deposit programme NA NA 7-365 days 2500 CRISIL A1+
Annexure - Rating History for last 3 Years
  Current 2019 (History) 2018  2017  2016  Start of 2016
Instrument Type Outstanding Amount Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Rating
Certificate of Deposits  ST  2500.00  CRISIL A1+  31-01-19  CRISIL A1+  28-11-18  CRISIL A1+  22-11-17  CRISIL A1+  01-11-16  CRISIL A1+  CRISIL A1+ 
                    06-04-16  CRISIL A1+   
All amounts are in Rs.Cr.
Links to related criteria
Rating Criteria for Banks and Financial Institutions
CRISILs Criteria for rating short term debt
Mapping global scale ratings onto CRISIL scale

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