Fitch Releases 4Q16 APAC Corporate Research Report "Viewpoint"

(The following statement was released by the rating agency) Link to Fitch Ratings' Report: Viewpoint 4Q16: APAC Corporates www.fitchratings.com/site/re/894228">https://www.fitchratings.com/site/re/894228 SYDNEY/SINGAPORE, February 14 (Fitch) Fitch Ratings has published its quarterly report "Viewpoint" - a compendium of short topical commentaries on various sectors across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region authored by our corporate analysts in 4Q16. "Viewpoint" seeks to provide a single source of all non-rating action commentary for investors interested in the current themes and market activity surrounding rated entities in APAC. In this edition, Fitch published 38 comments on various sectors across the Asia-Pacific region, with 15 focusing on China, seven on Indonesia and five on India. A key commentary was our summary of the 46 separate 2017 sector outlook reports. We assigned a negative outlook to almost one-third of sectors and the proportion of rated corporates with a Negative Outlook increased to 14% at end-2016, from 11% in the previous year. Growth across Asia remains high by global standards, but has been slowing, particularly in China. Meanwhile, external factors present challenges, such as the strong US dollar, weak global trade and political uncertainty in the US and Europe. The main highlights for China include our view that its "One Belt, One Road" initiative could fail to deliver expected returns; that the government is likely to continue to introduce or modify policies to cool the overheated property market; that the new trend of getting an onshore bank to provide a guarantee to obtain offshore debt will help Chinese corporates service their offshore debt; and that new natural gas pipeline transmission tariffs will increase transparency and hence may encourage greater private-sector participation. Most of our commentary about India revolves around government policy, including moves to demonetise high-domination currency notes and our expectation that this will negatively affect homebuilders. We also expect the government's natural gas price cuts to result in losses for upstream gas operators. "Viewpoint 4Q16: APAC Corporates" is available from www.fitchresearch.com or by clicking on the link in this media release. Contact: Matt Jamieson Head of APAC Research +61 2 8256 0366 Fitch Australia Pty Ltd Level 15, 77 King Street Sydney NSW 2000 Andrew Steel Regional Managing Director Head of Asia Pacific Corporate Ratings Group +65 6796 7231 Media Relations: Leslie Tan, Singapore, Tel: +65 67 96 7234, Email: leslie.tan@fitchratings.com. Additional information is available on www.fitchratings.com ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. 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