De Lage Landen Mexico maintained its AAA credit risk rating with FITCH

The rating agency FITCH has renewed its AAA rating for De Lage Landen Mexico, obtained last year. A local rating is necessary in order to maintain access to government subsidized funding in the agricultural sector. It is worth to mention that De Lage Landen is the only AAA rated company in the finance sector in Mexico.
 
In its rating conclusions Fitch pointed out the following aspects:

• The comfort of belonging to the RABOBANK Group,
• The equity increase of EUR 10 mio effectuated in January of 2009, which demonstrates the long-term commitment from De Lage Landen to the Mexican business.
• The ROE (21.2%) and ROA (2.1%) obtained during 2008 that, well above the local market average.
• The robust growth showed during 2008 where the portfolio was duplicated, alongside with a tight control over the credit procedures.
• The business Diversification Strategy
• The reasonable delinquency (2.5%) at December of 2008 compared to the market.

Despite the good result DLL Mexico is aware of the increased credit risk in the economical downturn. Full focus needs to be put on delinquency control and credit restrictions within the current adverse economic climate in order to secure again a AAA rating in 2010!