TEXT-S&P sees negative bias for Asia-Pacific issuer credit outlook

Dec 6 - Asia-Pacific issuers in the building materials, metals and minerals,
real estate development, capital goods, and chemicals sectors are likely to face
further stress in 2013, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said in a report
published today titled, "Asia-Pacific Credit Outlook 2013: Corporate Ratings'
Negative Bias To Persist Despite Likely Economic Upturn". Issuers in these
sectors are, to some extent, coping with cyclical lows.

"We found that our rated pool of Asia corporate, financial institution, and
insurance entities showed negative ratings biases at Nov. 30, 2012," Standard
& Poor's credit analyst Terry Chan said. "We expect this overall negative bias
to continue into 2013 despite higher regional economic growth. We forecast
that Asia-Pacific's real GDP growth will likely improve slightly to 5.0% in
2013, from an estimated 4.7% in 2012."

The credit quality of rated Asia-Pacific corporate issuers has deteriorated
slightly since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. Overall, the
pool of corporate ratings has averaged a drop of one notch at Nov. 30, 2012,
compared with the ratings levels at December 2008. For the region's rated
financial institutions and insurers, the decline has been less noticeable.

The report is available to RatingsDirect subscribers on the Global Credit
Portal at www.globalcreditportal.com and RatingsDirect subscribers at
www.ratingsdirect.com. Ratings information can also be found on Standard &
Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Ratings in the left
navigation bar, select Find a Rating.