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       T R O U B L E D   C O M P A N Y   R E P O R T E R

                          E U R O P E

          Tuesday, May 17, 2022, Vol. 23, No. 92

                           Headlines



B E L A R U S

BELAGROPROMBANK JSC: S&P Cuts Foreign Currency LT ICR to 'CC'
BELARUS DEVELOPMENT BANK: S&P Cuts Credit Ratings to 'CC/C'
BELARUSBANK: S&P Lowers Foreign Currency LongTerm ICR to 'CC'


C Y P R U S

AVIA SOLUTIONS: Fitch Affirms 'BB' LongTerm IDRs, Outlook Stable


F R A N C E

CMA CGM: Moody's Hikes CFR to Ba2 & Senior Unsecured Bond to Ba3


I R E L A N D

AURIUM CLO IV: Moody's Affirms B1 Rating on EUR11.8MM Cl. F Notes


I T A L Y

KEPLER SPA: Fitch Assigns 'B' LongTerm IDR, Outlook Stable
MARCOLIN SPA: Moody's Affirms 'B3' CFR & Alters Outlook to Stable


P O L A N D

GETIN NOBLE: Fitch Puts 'CCC' LT IDRs on Rating Watch Evolving


P O R T U G A L

PELICAN MORTGAGES 4: Fitch Affirms B-sf Rating on 2 Tranches


S P A I N

BOLUDA TOWAGE: Moody's Cuts CFR to B2 & Alters Outlook to Stable


T U R K E Y

TAKASBANK: Fitch Affirms B+ Issuer Default Ratings, Outlook Neg.
[*] Fitch Affirms 7 Turkish Non-Bank Institution Subsidiaries


U N I T E D   K I N G D O M

BRIGHTHOUSE: Customers May Not Get Refunds, Administrators Say
CO-OPERATIVE GROUP: S&P Lowers ICR to 'BB-' on Weaker Profitability
CONTOURGLOBAL PLC: Fitch Affirms 'BB-' IDRs, Outlook Stable
DAWNFRESH SEAFOODS: Administrators Reveal Interim Fees, Expenses
FCE BANK: Fitch Affirms 'B/BB+' Issuer Default Ratings

HOUSE BY URBAN SPLASH: Former Workers Mull Legal Action
MORTIMER BTL 2022-1: S&P Assigns B-(sf) Rating on Cl. X-Dfrd Notes
NMC HEALTH: Administrators Sue EY Over Audit Failings
PHONES 4U: Collusion by Mobile Cos Prompted Collapse, Suit Claims
VTB CAPITAL: Guernsey Operations Put Into Administration

WE ARE NOVA: Faces Investigation Over Collapsed Subsidiaries

                           - - - - -


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B E L A R U S
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BELAGROPROMBANK JSC: S&P Cuts Foreign Currency LT ICR to 'CC'
-------------------------------------------------------------
S&P Global Ratings lowered its foreign currency long-term issuer
credit rating on Belagroprombank JSC to 'CC' from 'CCC'. The rating
remains on CreditWatch with negative implications, where it was
placed on March 1, 2022. The short-term foreign currency rating is
unchanged at 'C'.

S&P said, "At the same time, we affirmed our local currency ratings
at 'CCC/C' and removed them from CreditWatch negative, where we
placed them on March 1, 2022. We consider the bank's Belarusian
ruble-denominated debt is less vulnerable to nonpayment than the
foreign-currency-denominated debt. The outlook on the local
currency ratings is negative, indicating that macroeconomic and
fiscal stress may weaken the bank's ability to stay current on its
local currency financial obligations."

The rating action on Belagroprombank mirrors that on the
sovereign.

S&P said, "We lowered the foreign currency sovereign rating because
the Belarus government reported difficulties in meeting its
principal and interest payments on debt owed to multilateral
lending institutions (MLI) due in April. These disruptions were
triggered by international sanctions that denied or significantly
diminished the authorities' access to global financial
infrastructure.

"Generally, we don't rate banks above the sovereign rating because
of the likely direct and indirect influence of sovereign distress
on their operations, including their ability to service foreign
currency obligations. We consider the financial performance of
Belagroprombank to be closely tied to that of the sovereign because
it has relied on support from the government in the past. We
therefore cap our ratings on the bank at the level of the sovereign
credit rating on Belarus. Belagroprombank is significantly exposed
to economic risks in Belarus and has business, funding, and
strategic links to the sovereign."

The negative outlook on the local currency ratings reflects that on
the local currency sovereign rating amid the high level of
macroeconomic and fiscal stress.

"We could lower the local currency ratings on Belagroprombank if we
lowered the sovereign local currency ratings or if we saw
indications that the bank's obligations denominated in Belarusian
rubles could suffer nonpayment or restructuring."

An upgrade of the local currency ratings on Belagroprombank would
depend on a similar rating action on the sovereign.

The foreign currency ratings remain on CreditWatch negative, in
line with those on the sovereign.

ESG credit indicators: E-2, S-1, G-4


BELARUS DEVELOPMENT BANK: S&P Cuts Credit Ratings to 'CC/C'
-----------------------------------------------------------
S&P Global Ratings lowered its foreign currency credit ratings on
fully state-owned Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus
(DBRB) to 'CC/C' from 'CCC/C'. The long- and short-term foreign
currency ratings remain on CreditWatch with negative implications.

S&P said, "At the same time, we removed our 'CCC/C' local currency
sovereign credit ratings from CreditWatch with negative
implications and affirmed them. The outlook on the long- and
short-term local currency ratings is negative.

"The foreign currency ratings remain on CreditWatch with negative
implications, indicating that we could lower them to 'SD'
(selective default) in the next few months if the bank fails to
make debt service or principal payment in accordance with the terms
of its foreign-currency obligations and if we do not expect it to
make such a payment within the applicable grace period."

On May 5, 2022, S&P lowered its foreign currency sovereign ratings
on Belarus to 'CC' from 'CCC' and kept them on CreditWatch with
negative implications.

The negative outlook on the local currency ratings reflects the
similar outlook on the sovereign.

S&P said, "We could lower the local currency ratings following a
similar action on the sovereign or if the bank's default or
distressed exchange on local currency debt obligations appeared
inevitable.

"We could revise the outlook to stable following a similar action
on the Belarus government.

"The downgrade mirrors our rating action on Belarus.

S&P said, "In our view, DBRB is one of the most important
state-owned enterprises in the country, implementing a range of
policies and projects on behalf of the government. We consider that
the institution has a critical role for and an integral link with
the government of Belarus. Consequently, we equalize our ratings on
DBRB with those on Belarus."

DBRB is currently under both EU and U.S. sanctions. The sanctions
prohibit EU or U.S. parties from transacting in new DBRB debt with
a maturity over 90 days. The bank has also been disconnected the
bank from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial
Telecommunication.

S&P said, "We understand that the Belarusian government has been
facing technical difficulties in making dollar-denominated
cross-border debt payments in recent months because of the
sanctions. Under some scenarios, DBRB might face similar
disruptions. The bank is due to repay the principle and coupon
payments on its Belarusian ruble-denominated Eurobond of the
equivalent of about $60 million on May 16, 2022, and we understand
that the institution has sufficient liquidity to make the payment
to the corresponding foreign paying agent.

"Our ratings focus on an issuer's ability and willingness to meet
its financial debt obligations in full and on time, in accordance
with the terms of its obligations. If an issuer cannot make a
payment in accordance with the terms and on time because it is
subject to sanctions, we deem the nonpayment to be a default,
unless we think it will make the payment within our timeliness
standards." This applies when the issuer pays a paying agent on
time, but a government sanction or judicial order against the
issuer interferes, preventing the payment being made to the
investor.

After the payment in May, DBRB's next foreign currency commercial
debt payment is in early November 2022 when the bank is due to make
a coupon payment on its 2024 $0.5 billion Eurobond.

S&P now considers that, absent an unforeseen positive development,
DBRB's foreign debt is highly vulnerable to nonpayment, similar to
the Belarusian government's debt.


BELARUSBANK: S&P Lowers Foreign Currency LongTerm ICR to 'CC'
-------------------------------------------------------------
S&P Global Ratings lowered its foreign currency long-term issuer
credit rating on Belarusbank to 'CC' from 'CCC'. The rating remains
on CreditWatch with negative implications, where it was placed on
March 1, 2022. The short-term foreign currency rating is unchanged
at 'C'.

S&P said, "At the same time, we affirmed our local currency ratings
at 'CCC/C' and removed them from CreditWatch negative, where we
placed them on March 1, 2022. We consider the bank's Belarusian
ruble-denominated debt less vulnerable to nonpayment than the
foreign-currency-denominated debt." The outlook on the local
currency ratings is negative, indicating that macroeconomic and
fiscal stress may weaken the bank's ability to stay current on its
local currency financial obligations."

The rating action on Belarusbank mirrors that on the sovereign.

S&P said, "We lowered the foreign currency sovereign rating because
the Belarus government reported difficulties in meeting its
principal and interest payments on debt owed to multilateral
lending institutions (MLI) due in April. These disruptions were
triggered by international sanctions that denied or significantly
diminished the authorities' access to global financial
infrastructure.

"Generally, we don't rate banks above the sovereign rating because
of the likely direct and indirect influence of sovereign distress
on their operations, including their ability to service foreign
currency obligations.

"We note that Belarusbank has a negligible level of liabilities to
nonresidents from the EU and the U.S., maturing in 2022, comprising
just 0.5% of the bank's assets. We understand that the bank is
current on its foreign currency-denominated obligations.
Nevertheless, we consider that if sanctions were tightened,
Belarusbank may face technical difficulties in servicing its debt
obligations, similar to those faced by the government of Belarus."

In April 2022, the government of Belarus, as sole shareholder,
increased the bank's capital by over US$700 million. The bank
maintains funding and liquidity ratios well above minimum
requirements, with liquidity coverage ratio indicators above 150%
and net stable funding ratio indicators above 110%.

S&P said, "The negative outlook on the local currency ratings
reflects that on the local currency sovereign rating, amid a high
level of macroeconomic and fiscal stress.

"We could lower the local currency ratings on Belarusbank if we
lowered the sovereign local currency ratings or if we saw
indications that obligations denominated in Belarusian rubles could
suffer nonpayment or restructuring."

A positive rating action on the local currency ratings on
Belarusbank would depend on a similar rating action on the
sovereign.

CreditWatch

The foreign currency ratings remain on CreditWatch negative, in
line with those on the sovereign.

ESG credit indicators: E-2, S-1, G-4




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C Y P R U S
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AVIA SOLUTIONS: Fitch Affirms 'BB' LongTerm IDRs, Outlook Stable
----------------------------------------------------------------
Fitch Ratings has affirmed Avia Solutions Group Plc's (Avia)
Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BB' with a Stable
Outlook. Fitch has also affirmed the 'BB' senior unsecured rating
of the USD300 million bonds issued by ASG Finance Designated
Activity Company, which is 100% owned by Avia. The bonds are
guaranteed by Avia and its key divisional subsidiaries accounting
for over 90% of Avia's consolidated revenue.

The affirmation reflects Fitch's updated assumptions for the
aviation industry as well as Avia's updated business plan,
reflecting strong demand pick-up in some of Avia's businesses.

Avia's credit metrics were broadly stable in 2021 compared with
2020 with funds from operations (FFO)-adjusted gross leverage of
5.5x (after treating the EUR300 million investment by Certares
Management in 4Q21 as debt), which was outside Fitch's negative
rating sensitivity of 4.0x. However, Fitch forecasts the leverage
metric to improve in 2022 and be commensurate with Fitch's rating
guidelines.

The IDR is supported by the diversity of Avia's operations in
various segments of the commercial aviation value chain,
diversification by geography with a focus on Europe and currently
low asset intensity. Key person risk stemming from majority
ownership by one individual is a rating constraint despite
historically limited dividends.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

Sustained Recovery from Pandemic: Avia's 2021 performance saw a
recovery in revenue and EBITDA to pre-pandemic levels, albeit
comparison is complicated by the consolidation of some of its
businesses in 2019. While Avia's operations in the different
commercial aviation segments resulted in a varied impact from the
pandemic-driven aviation and economic shock, the company has
benefitted significantly from strong air freight rates that
supported high profits in the cargo business. This more than offset
declines in its other businesses, which nevertheless remained
profitable (Fitch-adjusted for leases) in 2021.

External Impact Manageable: Avia's exposure to Russia, Ukraine and
Belarus is small and impact from the Ukrainian war is manageable.
Avia's total revenue exposure to these countries was around 6% in
2021 and it does not have any major assets located there. One of
Avia's joint-ventures (JV), through its ACMI business in China, had
13 aircraft on dry lease to a Russian airline. The worst-case
scenario for Avia's investment in this JV is a write-off of less
than 4% total consolidated assets. The war has benefited Avia's
cargo business due to the industry's reduced cargo capacity
following the removal of Russian cargo airlines or aircraft for
routes to Europe.

Strong Rebound in ACMI: The aircraft wet leasing (ACMI) business
was the most affected business in 2020 as the majority of leased
out aircrafts were grounded in a commercial passenger aviation
shutdown. However, with the gradual recovery in passenger air
travel demand, demand for Avia's ACMI business has increased
sharply and the company is currently wet-leasing more than double
the number of passenger and cargo aircraft it had wet-leased out in
2019. Fitch expects this business to remain strong and to grow
steadily although EBITDA margins in this business, after deducting
leasing-in costs, are forecast to remain in mid-single digits given
the more service-oriented nature of the business.

AAML EBITDA to Improve: Aircraft trading and leasing business
(AAML) was able to continue its operations, albeit at a lower level
than Fitch's pre-pandemic expectations. The majority of proceeds
from Avia's USD300 million bond issued in 2019 were going to be
used to fund investments in this business, but these were put on
hold. Following recent trading and leasing deals undertaken by Avia
in this business, Fitch expects AAML's EBITDA to improve in 2022
compared with 2020 and 2021 levels and be comparable with 2019
levels.

Well-Diversified Business Model: Avia's operations span most of the
B2B segments in the commercial aviation sector ranging from
aircraft maintenance (MRO), passenger and cargo charter, leasing,
training to aircraft trading. Avia is one of the leading
independent aviation operators in central and eastern Europe (CEE)
with its customers including some of the major European airlines.
Avia continues to generate the majority of its revenue from the
developed markets of Germany, UK, Ireland and the US, with CEE
countries being the other key market.

Established Market Positions: Avia has strong market positions in
the CEE MRO and ground handling segments, which benefit from
competitive advantages such as limited infrastructure availability
for new entrants, as well as licensing and certification
requirements. The short-term nature of wet-leasing has enabled the
company to manage customer risk, as evident in its ability to
reduce leasing costs in line with a decline in revenue. Avia is
increasing its exposure to the cargo and logistics business
following the acquisitions of Chapman Freeborn and Bluebird Nordic
and the resilient performance of the segment in 2020.

Credit Metrics to Improve: Despite operational improvement in 2021,
FFO gross adjusted leverage remained broadly stable at 5.5x at
end-2021 due to inclusion of the EUR300 million Certares investment
as debt (due to the possibility of being refinanced by debt in case
of no new equity issue). Fitch expects it to decline to below 4.0x
by end-2022 due to continued demand and sound performance at some
of Avia's businesses, such as aircraft leasing and cargo.

DERIVATION SUMMARY

Avia's business model is a combination of mostly service-oriented
businesses and, to a lesser extent, more asset-intensive business
of aircraft trading. In contrast to passenger airlines, Avia
operates in the B2B commercial aviation market. Given its
operations in MRO, ground handling and leasing businesses, Fitch
views its business profile as more stable than passenger airlines
but on a par with or marginally weaker than large pure ground
handling companies'. The company operates on a smaller scale and
different portfolio mix than larger, well-established lessors such
as AerCap Holdings N.V. (BBB-/Stable) or Air Lease Corporation
(BBB/Stable).

KEY ASSUMPTIONS

-- Aviation support services (MRO, fuelling, logistics, charter
    and training) to grow gradually from 2022, driven by industry
    demand;

-- ACMI business to continue growing from the ramped-up levels of

    2022, due to high demand from large established airlines for
    wet leasing;

-- AAML EBITDA in 2022 to be similar to 2019 levels, due to a
    higher number of conversions contracted this year (including
    slippage from 2021), and to grow steadily in 2023-2024;

-- Cargo brokers' EBITDA to significantly decline in 2022 from
    the highs of 2021, due to assumed gradual normalisation of air

    freight rates;

-- Capex in line with management forecasts to 2025;

-- EUR30 million one-off dividend payment in 2022 followed by no
    dividends until 2025.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to positive
rating action/upgrade:

-- FFO-adjusted gross leverage sustainably below 3.0x, driven by
    recovery from 2022 onwards;

-- Usage of available debt issue proceeds in line with management

    plan, leading to balanced growth of asset-intensive aircraft
    leasing and trading business as well as the services-oriented
    businesses;

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to negative
rating action/downgrade:

-- FFO-adjusted gross leverage sustainably above 4.0x due to
    prolonged impact from a global economic crisis or
    implementation of an ambitious investment or dividend policy;

-- Decline in consolidated EBITDA margin below 5%, including
    significant decline at AAML due to the inability to execute
    new business opportunities, while maintaining its current debt

    structure, which was put in place to support investment-driven

    growth.

BEST/WORST CASE RATING SCENARIO

International scale credit ratings of Non-Financial Corporate
issuers have a best-case rating upgrade scenario (defined as the
99th percentile of rating transitions, measured in a positive
direction) of three notches over a three-year rating horizon; and a
worst-case rating downgrade scenario (defined as the 99th
percentile of rating transitions, measured in a negative direction)
of four notches over three years. The complete span of best- and
worst-case scenario credit ratings for all rating categories ranges
from 'AAA' to 'D'. Best- and worst-case scenario credit ratings are
based on historical performance.

LIQUIDITY AND DEBT STRUCTURE

Adequate Liquidity: Avia's liquidity at end-2021 consisted of
EUR442 million of cash and equivalents, benefiting from the unused
proceeds from its unsecured bond issued in 2019 as well as the
EUR300 million of preferred equity injection by Certares. These
funds will be used to fund investments to support growth. This
liquidity compares with EUR17 million of short-term bank debt.
Fitch forecasts 2022 free cash flow to be a negative EUR248 million
due to an increase in the company's planned capex to EUR260
million, the majority of which is discretionary.

If Avia's recovery is significantly slower than Fitch's
assumptions, Fitch would expect the company to adjust its capital
structure to the business size or reduce non-contracted capex to
preserve liquidity to support its ratings.

ISSUER PROFILE

Avia provides specialists services to the aviation industry in more
than 160 countries across five continents.

ESG CONSIDERATIONS

Unless otherwise disclosed in this section, the highest level of
ESG credit relevance is a score of '3'. This means ESG issues are
credit-neutral or have only a minimal credit impact on the entity,
either due to their nature or the way in which they are being
managed by the entity.

   DEBT                    RATING              PRIOR
   ----                    ------              -----
ASG Finance
Designated Activity
Company

  senior unsecured        LT      BB  Affirmed  BB

Avia Solutions Group
PLC                       
                          LT IDR  BB  Affirmed  BB




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F R A N C E
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CMA CGM: Moody's Hikes CFR to Ba2 & Senior Unsecured Bond to Ba3
----------------------------------------------------------------
Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the corporate family rating
of CMA CGM S.A. (CMA CGM or the company) to Ba2 from Ba3 and its
probability default rating to Ba2-PD from Ba3-PD. Concurrently, the
company's senior unsecured ratings were upgraded to Ba3 from B2. At
the same time, Moody's withdrew the Ba3 CFR of CEVA Logistics SA
(CEVA) and assigned a long term issuer rating of Ba3 to CEVA, in
line with the senior unsecured rating of CMA CGM. The outlook on
both issuers remains positive.

"The upgrade to Ba2 was prompted by continued reduction in
financial leverage, improved liquidity and increase in unencumbered
assets, supported by more favourable industry conditions but
equally important a focus on balance sheet enhancements" says
Daniel Harlid, the Vice President - Senior Analyst and the lead
analyst for CMA CGM." While we expect weaker market conditions in
2023-24, CMA now has a balance sheet well prepared to meet such a
scenario", Mr. Harlid continues.

RATINGS RATIONALE

During the last three years CMA CGM has undergone a
transformational journey, diversifying its revenue sources away
from container shipping and into logistics and freight forwarding.
It has done so by first acquiring CEVA Logistics SA in 2019, adding
further capabilities during with three additional acquisitions
announced over the last 12 months which will all be paid for for in
cash. This has been possible due to an unprecedented market
environment for the container shipping industry following the
recovery from the pandemic, where CMA generated a Moody's-adjusted
free cash flow of $15 billion in 2021 and is expected by Moody's to
generate another $13 billion in 2022. CMA has used this environment
to significantly reduce its financial debt load by almost 40% since
before the CEVA acquisition. Despite these record high free cash
flow figures, the company has shown a disciplined financial policy,
only paying out a fraction to its shareholders and instead
reinvesting into the business.        

Moody's note that the next two years (2023-24) could potentially
prove to be two challenging years for the industry as the global
fleet is poised to grow by around 8% annually. This is considerably
higher than market projections for demand growth of around 3%-4%.
Such demand supply / gap has historically put negative pressure on
freight rates and carrier profitability. Nevertheless, the Ba2
rating is well positioned to defend these downside risks, as the
current capital structure provides cushion for a weaker market
environment. The positive outlook indicates that a higher rating is
possible should such a weakening in the environment be less severe
than what the industry has experienced in the past.

Further underpinning the rating actions is the company's
significantly increased pool of unencumbered assets, resulting in
an unencumbered assets ratio that maps to a Ba sub score in Moody's
shipping methodology. As Moody's understand the intention is to
finance the lion share of capex this year with cash as well as
continuing to repay secured, Moody's foresee this ratio to continue
to increase.

RATIONALE FOR THE POSITIVE OUTLOOK

The positive outlook reflects Moody's expectations of strong key
credit metrics in 2022 and a high likelihood of sustained credit
metrics through the cycle, albeit with a normalization of the EBIT
margin toward high single digits in percentage terms. This should
translate to a debt / EBITDA of 2.0x – 3.0x but a still very
strong RCF / Net debt of at least 60% but with potential for a
significantly higher ratio depending on the environment.

While credit metrics may indicate upward pressure this year,
Moody's do not expect an upgrade to take place before the second
half of 2023 once Moody's can assess the potential financial impact
on CMA CGM and its peers from the very sizeable inflow of new
vessels in 2023 and 2024. Future rating actions will also depend on
how the industry behaves in an environment where supply greatly
exceeds demand.

STRUCTURAL CONSIDERATIONS

CMA CGM's bond rating is one notch below its CFR, reflecting the
contractual subordination to the secured debt existing within the
group (primarily vessel and container financing), as well as a pari
passu ranking with all other unsecured debt issued by CMA CGM. The
reduction to one notch from two notches reflects; (1) an increased
proportion of unencumbered assets; (2) a higher rating level (3) a
reduction of secured debt vs unsecured debt and (4) the expectation
that the trend in lower recourse to secured debt is likely to
continue.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

Although current key credit metrics positions the rating strongly,
a prerequisite for positive ratings pressure is a sustained robust
performance in a weaker market environment and a continuation of
its conservative policy. Furthermore, the following key credit
ratios would have to be met and sustained; (1) Moody's-adjusted
debt/EBITDA remaining comfortably below 3.0x; (2) High-single-digit
EBIT margin in percentage terms; (3) Retained cash flow (RCF)/net
debt at least in the high-20s in percentage terms and (4)
maintaining good liquidity at all times.

Conversely, the ratings would be negatively affected if, on a
sustained basis, the following key credit ratios would weaken; (1)
Moody's-adjusted debt/EBITDA above 3.0x; (2); EBIT margin below 5%
over the cycle; (3) Retained cash flow (RCF)/net debt falling
towards 15% or (4) a weakened liquidity profile because of negative
free cash flow generation or large-scale M&A transactions.    

PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY

The principal methodology used in rating CMA CGM S.A. was Shipping
published in June 2021.

LIST OF AFFECTED RATINGS

Upgrades:

Issuer: CMA CGM S.A.

Probability of Default Rating, Upgraded to Ba2-PD from Ba3-PD

LT Corporate Family Rating, Upgraded to Ba2 from Ba3

Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture, Upgraded to Ba3 from B2

Assignments:

Issuer: CEVA Logistics SA

LT Issuer Rating, Assigned Ba3

Withdrawals:

Issuer: CEVA Logistics SA

Probability of Default Rating, Withdrawn, previously rated Ba3-PD

LT Corporate Family Rating, Withdrawn, previously rated Ba3

Outlook Actions:

Issuer: CMA CGM S.A.

Outlook, Remains Positive

Issuer: CEVA Logistics SA

Outlook, Remains Positive

COMPANY PROFILE

Based in Marseille, France, CMA CGM is the third largest provider
of global container shipping services. The company operates
primarily in the international containerized maritime
transportation of goods, but its activities also include container
terminal operations, intermodal, inland transport and logistics. In
2021, the company reported revenue of $56 billion and EBITDA of $23
billion. The company is ultimately owned by the Saade family (73%),
Yildrim Holding (24%) and BPI France (3%).




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I R E L A N D
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AURIUM CLO IV: Moody's Affirms B1 Rating on EUR11.8MM Cl. F Notes
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the ratings on the following
notes issued by Aurium CLO IV Designated Activity Company:

EUR54,000,000 Class B Senior Secured Floating Rate Notes due 2031,
Upgraded to Aaa (sf); previously on Nov 17, 2021 Affirmed Aa2 (sf)

EUR32,000,000 Class C Senior Secured Deferrable Floating Rate
Notes due 2031, Upgraded to A1 (sf); previously on Nov 17, 2021
Affirmed A2 (sf)

Moody's has also affirmed the ratings on the following notes:

EUR229,000,000 Class A Senior Secured Floating Rate Notes due
2031, Affirmed Aaa (sf); previously on Nov 17, 2021 Definitive
Rating Assigned Aaa (sf)

EUR24,200,000 Class D Senior Secured Deferrable Floating Rate
Notes due 2031, Affirmed Baa2 (sf); previously on Nov 17, 2021
Affirmed Baa2 (sf)

EUR20,300,000 Class E Senior Secured Deferrable Floating Rate
Notes due 2031, Affirmed Ba2 (sf); previously on Nov 17, 2021
Affirmed Ba2 (sf)

EUR11,800,000 Class F Senior Secured Deferrable Floating Rate
Notes due 2031, Affirmed B1 (sf); previously on Nov 17, 2021
Upgraded to B1 (sf)

Aurium CLO IV Designated Activity Company, originally issued in
April 2018 and refinanced in November 2021, is a collateralised
loan obligation (CLO) backed by a portfolio of mostly high-yield
senior secured European loans. The portfolio is managed by Spire
Management Limited ("Spire").  The transaction's reinvestment
period will end in July 2022.

RATINGS RATIONALE

The rating upgrades on the Class B and C notes is primarily a
result of the benefit of the transaction nearing the end of the
reinvestment period in July 2022.

In light of reinvestment restrictions during the amortisation
period, and therefore the limited ability to effect significant
changes to the current collateral pool, Moody's analysed the deal
assuming a higher likelihood that the collateral pool
characteristics would maintain an adequate buffer relative to
certain covenant requirements. In particular, Moody's assumed that
the deal will benefit from a shorter amortisation profile than it
had assumed at the last rating action in November 2021.

The key model inputs Moody's uses in its analysis, such as par,
weighted average rating factor, diversity score and the weighted
average recovery rate, are based on its published methodology and
could differ from the trustee's reported numbers.

In its base case, Moody's used the following assumptions:

Performing par and principal proceeds balance: EUR398.8m

Defaulted Securities: none

Diversity Score: 56

Weighted Average Rating Factor (WARF): 2759

Weighted Average Life (WAL): 4.7 years

Weighted Average Spread (WAS) (before accounting for Euribor
floors): 3.6%

Weighted Average Coupon (WAC): 4.4%

Weighted Average Recovery Rate (WARR): 44.5%

Par haircut in OC tests and interest diversion test:  none

The default probability derives from the credit quality of the
collateral pool and Moody's expectation of the remaining life of
the collateral pool. The estimated average recovery rate on future
defaults is based primarily on the seniority of the assets in the
collateral pool. In each case, historical and market performance
and a collateral manager's latitude to trade collateral are also
relevant factors. Moody's incorporates these default and recovery
characteristics of the collateral pool into its cash flow model
analysis, subjecting them to stresses as a function of the target
rating of each CLO liability it is analysing.

Methodology Underlying the Rating Action

The principal methodology used in these ratings was "Moody's Global
Approach to Rating Collateralized Loan Obligations" published in
December 2021.

Counterparty Exposure:

The rating action took into consideration the notes' exposure to
relevant counterparties, such as account bank, using the
methodology "Moody's Approach to Assessing Counterparty Risks in
Structured Finance" published in May 2021. Moody's concluded the
ratings of the notes are not constrained by these risks.

Factors that would lead to an upgrade or downgrade of the ratings

This transaction is subject to a high level of macroeconomic
uncertainty, which could negatively affect the ratings on the note,
in light of uncertainty about credit conditions in the general
economy. In particular, the length and severity of the economic and
credit shock precipitated by the global coronavirus pandemic will
have a significant impact on the performance of the securities. CLO
notes' performance may also be impacted either positively or
negatively by: (1) the manager's investment strategy and behaviour;
and (2) divergence in the legal interpretation of CDO documentation
by different transactional parties because of embedded
ambiguities.

Additional uncertainty about performance is due to the following:

Portfolio amortisation: Once reaching the end of the reinvestment
period in July 2022, the main source of uncertainty in this
transaction is the pace of amortisation of the underlying
portfolio, which can vary significantly depending on market
conditions and have a significant impact on the notes' ratings.
Amortisation could accelerate as a consequence of high loan
prepayment levels or collateral sales by the collateral manager or
be delayed by an increase in loan amend-and-extend restructurings.
Fast amortisation would usually benefit the ratings of the notes
beginning with the notes having the highest prepayment priority.

Weighted average life: The notes' ratings are sensitive to the
weighted average life assumption of the portfolio, which could
lengthen as a result of the manager's decision to reinvest in new
issue loans or other loans with longer maturities, or participate
in amend-to-extend offerings.  Moody's tested for a possible
extension of the actual weighted average life in its analysis. The
effect on the ratings of extending the portfolio's weighted average
life can be positive or negative depending on the notes' seniority.



=========
I T A L Y
=========

KEPLER SPA: Fitch Assigns 'B' LongTerm IDR, Outlook Stable
----------------------------------------------------------
Fitch Ratings has assigned Kepler SpA (Biofarma) a first-time
Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'B' with a Stable Outlook.
Fitch has also assigned Kepler S.p.A.'s proposed seven-year EUR345
million senior secured notes a rating of 'B+' with a Recovery
Rating of 'RR3'.

The ratings are constrained by Biofarma's small size, limited
diversification and business concentration in combination with
material initial leverage as part of the company's acquisition by a
private-equity investor. Rating strengths are its established
market niche position as a CDMO (contract development and
manufacturing organisation), specialised in nutraceuticals
(non-pharmaceutical enhancers), which benefit from its
well-invested manufacturing platform located in northern Italy, and
from structurally growing demand for its products.

We anticipate Biofarma's leverage to moderately reduce over Fitch's
rating horizon as the company continues to grow organically,
supported by selective and targeted M&A, which Fitch reflects in
Fitch's Stable Outlook.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

Specialist CDMO Operations: The ratings reflect Biofarma's
established market positions in the niche nutraceutical market as
an innovative outsourcing partner for pharmaceutical and consumer
health companies (CHC), producing nutraceutical finished dosage
form products (NFDFP) for health supplements and cosmetics, and
associated medical devices.

Its key area of expertise is growing probiotics, where it holds a
leading 29% share in the EU market and which represents a
significant portion of the company's sales and gross profit.
Biofarma operates four manufacturing facilities in northern Italy,
benefiting from specialist knowledge in the innovation and
production of NFDFPs.

Limited Scale, Concentrated Business: Biofarma's limited scale and
diversification are mitigated by the technological content and long
production cycles of its products and high switching costs for its
customers, which protects the business and increases revenue
visibility. Fitch views investment in R&D (ie product development)
and in state-of-the-art manufacturing as critical to its success as
partner of choice for its larger customers.

Supportive Market Fundamentals: Biofarma benefits from supportive
fundamentals of the broader pharmaceuticals and CHC markets, with
non-cyclical volume growth driven by a growing and ageing
population and an increasing focus on health and disease
prevention. In addition, Biofarma is well- placed to capitalise on
a growing outsourcing trend of specialist ingredient manufacturing
processes, particularly in the pharmaceutical and CHC markets,
which Fitch expects to remain a driver of growth for the CDMO
sector.

Profitability to Improve: Based on Fitch's organic growth
assumptions, Fitch projects EBITDA margins to gradually improve to
or above 25% in 2024-2025, reflecting the positive operating
leverage from higher capacity utilisations and adequate pricing
power to manage inflationary pressures. Biofarma's niche specialist
ingredients allow a greater ability to pass on cost inflation to
its customers than that of CDMOs operating in the more commoditised
active pharmaceutical ingredients market. Nevertheless, inflation
is a key risk to EBITDA margins.

Strong Cash Generation: Fitch's profitability assumptions lead to
improving cash conversion with free cash flow (FCF) margin trending
towards 5%-7% (from just below 3% in 2022). This is despite Fitch's
assumption of continuing high capex of around 5%-6% of sales to
maintain manufacturing excellence. Such cash conversion is strong
for the rating and supports moderate deleveraging over the rating
horizon to 2025.

High Initial Financial Leverage: Fitch views initial total
debt/EBITDA of 5.5x as high, which in combination with its limited
size and diversification, constrain the rating. However, Fitch's
rating case assumes a steady reduction of leverage as the company
focuses on implementing its organic growth strategy
post-acquisition. Fitch's Stable Outlook therefore assumes a
gradual maturing of the financial profile over the next two years
with financial leverage trending towards 4x by 2025.

M&A Anticipated, Moderate Execution Risks: Fitch's rating case
assumes a continuation of the company's inorganic growth strategy
focusing on targeted, selective M&A in enhancing its technology
base, product offering, geographical reach and scale. This would
lead to manageable execution risks. Hence, Fitch's rating case
assumes a cumulative M&A spend of EUR200 million in 2022-2025,
effectively reinvesting all liquidity under the current capital
structure, including cash generated, but without issuing new debt
and/or equity (we assume an average enterprise value (EV) at 11x
EBITDA). Fitch would treat higher M&A spend or a less gradual
approach to M&A as event risk particularly given its current
limited scale of operations.

DERIVATION SUMMARY

Fitch rates Biofarma under its global Generic Rating Navigator. Its
business profile is supported by resilient end-market demand, the
continued outsourcing trend and moderate entry barriers, with high
switching cost for clients and strong revenue visibility. The
rating is constrained by its overall limited scale in a fragmented
and competitive CDMO market, and somewhat significant customer
concentration.

We regard capital- and asset-intensive businesses such as F.I.S.
(Fabbrica Italiana Sintetici S.p.A., B/Stable), Recipharm (Roar
Bidco AB, B/Positive), PharmaZell (European Medco Development 3
Sa.r.l., B/Stable) and Ceva Sante (Financiere Top Mendel,
B/Stable). They all rely on ongoing investments to grow at or above
market and to maintain operating margins.

Biofarma's profitability is currently similar to that of Recipharm
(18%), but Fitch expects it to improve closer to 25%, similar to
that of Ceva and PharmaZell. Fitch also expects Biofarma will
generate mid-to-high single-digit FCF margin over the rating
horizon, similar to Recipharm's and slightly above PharmaZell's.

Nevertheless, Biofarma is considerably smaller in scale and its
5.5x debt/EBITDA post-acquisition compares negatively with all
peers', with the exception of Recipharm's 6.6x, while the rest of
the peers are below 5.0x.

In Fitch's wider pharmaceutical rated portfolio, generic drug
manufacturing companies Stada (Nidda BondCo GmbH, B/Negative) and
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (BB-/Stable) are much larger
than Biofarma.

Compared with asset-light niche pharmaceutical companies owning
drug patents but outsourcing manufacturing to CDMOS such as
Cheplapharm (CHEPLAPHARM Arzneimittel GmbH, B+/Stable), Pharmanovia
(Pharmanovia Bidco Limited, B+/Stable), Advanz (Cidron Aida Bidco
Limited, B/Stable) and Theramex (IWH UK Midco Limited, B/Stable)
are similar in size but have superior profitability and positive
FCF margins in the double digits, which allow them to have higher
leverage.

KEY ASSUMPTIONS

Fitch's Key Assumptions Within Fitch's Rating Case for the Issuer:

-- Double-digit organic sales growth in 2022, supported by a
    strong product pipeline and cross-selling opportunities
    arising from the IHS acquisition; organic revenue growth of 7%

    in 2023 and 5% in 2024-2025;

-- EBITDA margin improving to 25% over 2022-2025 from 19% in
    2021, based on manufacturing efficiency improvements and
    procurement savings;

-- Capex of about EUR20 million in 2022-2025;

-- M&A for EUR30 million-EUR70 million in the next four years,
    funded from FCF and a committed revolving credit facility
    (RCF);

-- No dividends over the rating horizon.

FITCH'S RECOVERY RATING ASSUMPTIONS

Biofarma's recovery analysis is based on a going-concern (GC)
approach, which according to Fitch analysis supports a higher
realisable value in a financial distress than a balance-sheet
liquidation. A balance-sheet liquidation will be supported by the
value from its four fully-owned manufacturing plants.

Financial distress could arise primarily from increased costs or
price pressures in a higher-than-expected inflationary environment,
or the loss of key contracts from its top customers, which would
lead to margin contraction and reduced cash flow generation.

Our GC EV calculation yields a post-restructuring EBITDA of EUR56
million. At this post-restructuring EBITDA, Fitch still believes
that the company will be able to continue generating cash, though
it would face high pressure given total debt/EBITDA of around
7.5x.

The multiple Fitch used is 5.0x EV/EBITDA, which is in line with a
CDMO of Biofarma's scale.

After deducting 10% for administrative claims, and considering
Biofarma's EUR60 million RCF as fully drawn and which is super
senior to the notes, Fitch's principal waterfall analysis of the
company generated a ranked recovery in the 'RR3' category for the
EUR345 million floating rate notes, with 56% recoveries, leading to
a 'B+' rating, one notch above the IDR.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to positive
rating action/upgrade:

-- Successful implementation of growth strategy, including
    selective and targeted M&A, leading to increased scale;

-- EBITDA margin sustained at or above 25%

-- Continued strong cash generation with FCF margins sustained in

    the high single digits;

-- Fitch-calculated gross leverage sustained at or below 4.5x
    EBITDA (gross leverage at or below 5.0x funds from operations
    (FFO);

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to negative
rating action/downgrade:

-- Unsuccessful implementation of growth strategy, including an
    M&A approach that increases financial and execution risks;

-- EBITDA margin sustained at or below 20%;

-- Weakening cash generation with FCF margins around break-even;

-- Fitch-calculated gross leverage sustained above 6.5x EBITDA
    (gross leverage sustained above 7.0x FFO).

BEST/WORST CASE RATING SCENARIO

International scale credit ratings of Non-Financial Corporate
issuers have a best-case rating upgrade scenario (defined as the
99th percentile of rating transitions, measured in a positive
direction) of three notches over a three-year rating horizon; and a
worst-case rating downgrade scenario (defined as the 99th
percentile of rating transitions, measured in a negative direction)
of four notches over three years. The complete span of best- and
worst-case scenario credit ratings for all rating categories ranges
from 'AAA' to 'D'. Best- and worst-case scenario credit ratings are
based on historical performance.

LIQUIDITY AND DEBT STRUCTURE

Adequate Liquidity: Fitch views Biofarma's liquidity as adequate,
supported by EUR77 million of liquidity pro-forma for the
acquisition. Its liquidity consists of EUR17 million of cash
remaining on its balance sheet, and full availability under its new
EUR60 million RCF.

We expect Biofarma to generate negative FCF after acquisitions and
divestitures, mainly because of the acquisitions Fitch expects the
company to undertake over the rating horizon. Excluding the
acquisitions, Fitch expects the company to generate consistently
positive FCF.

ESG CONSIDERATIONS

Unless otherwise disclosed in this section, the highest level of
ESG credit relevance is a score of '3'. This means ESG issues are
credit-neutral or have only a minimal credit impact on the entity,
either due to their nature or the way in which they are being
managed by the entity.

   ENTITY/DEBT            RATING           RECOVERY
   -----------            ------           --------
Kepler S.p.A.      LT IDR B    New Rating
senior secured    LT     B+   New Rating    RR3


MARCOLIN SPA: Moody's Affirms 'B3' CFR & Alters Outlook to Stable
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Moody's Investors Service has changed to stable from negative the
outlook on the ratings of Italian eyeglass manufacturer Marcolin
S.p.A. ("Marcolin", "the company" or "the group").

Concurrently, Moody's has affirmed the company's B3 corporate
family rating, B3-PD probability of default rating and the B3
rating on its EUR350 million guaranteed senior secured notes due
2026.

"The change in outlook to stable from negative reflects the
recovery in Marcolin's operating performance in 2021 and our
expectation that there will be continued improvement over next one
to two years," says Lorenzo Re, a Moody's Vice President - Senior
Analyst and lead analyst for Marcolin.

"The rating action also reflects Marcolin's large cash position
following the sale of its stake in Thelios for EUR158 million (or
EUR128 million net of the EUR30 million share buyback as part of
the same transaction), which provides financial flexibility to
reduce leverage or finance growth opportunities," adds Mr Re.

RATINGS RATIONALE

Marcolin's operating performance in 2021 substantially recovered
from the weak 2020 performance, although not yet returning to the
pre-pandemic levels. In particular, revenues increased by 34% in
2021 to EUR455 million and Moody's adjusted EBITDA reached EUR39
million, compared with only EUR1 million in 2020 and EUR46 million
in 2019.

This improvement in profitability as well as tight working capital
management resulted in solid cash flow generation, with cash flow
from operations (CFO) of EUR74 million in 2021, from negative EUR46
million in 2020.

Positive earnings momentum continued in Q1 2022, with sales growth
of 19.5% (15.3% on a like-for-like basis), supported by solid
performance of the company's major brands, Tom Ford and Guess. A
better sales mix and the efficiency measures adopted by the
company, particularly on procurement, resulted in continued margin
improvement, despite the adverse impact of higher logistics costs.

EBITDA margin reached 14%, a 800bps increase compared to the same
period in 2021. Moody's expects Marcolin's EBITDA to increase to
approximately EUR60 million in 2022 and its leverage to decline
from 9.7x in 2021 to below 6.5x in the next 18 months, a level
commensurate with the B3 rating category.

However, this improvement remains subject to execution risk because
of increasing challenges from rising input costs, supply chain
problems and deteriorating macroeconomic environment that could
result in softening demand owing to weaker consumer confidence.
Moody's expects that Marcolin should be able to weather these
pressures better than other consumer durables peers owing to its
solid presence in the luxury segment, which allows it to pass
through cost increases to consumers more easily than in other
segments.

Moreover, following the disposal of its stake in Thelios, a JV
established in 2017 for the design and production of eyewear for
some brands of the LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (LVMH, A1
stable) group, Marcolin has a considerable cash position amounting
to EUR216 million, which provides substantial financial flexibility
in case of operational underperformance. Moody's expects that
Marcolin will use the EUR128 million net proceeds from the disposal
to finance growth, including M&A, or to reduce debt, in the absence
of suitable investment opportunities.

Marcolin's credit profile is supported by the company's solid
market position in the global eyewear market, with a well-balanced
product and geographic diversification. The rating also factors the
company's modest size and the risk of licenses not being renewed,
owing to the lack of significant proprietary brands and the high
sales concentration in a few brands.

LIQUIDITY

Marcolin's liquidity is good, supported by a large cash balance of
EUR216 million as of March 2022 and full availability under the
EUR46 million RCF. This will cover its capital spending of around
EUR20 million per year as well as its seasonal working capital
swing, with cash absorption in the first half of the year and
release in the second half.

The RCF includes a springing financial covenant of 11.5x net
leverage, tested quarterly when drawings exceed 40% of the RCF.

STRUCTURAL CONSIDERATIONS

The B3 rating assigned to the EUR350 million guaranteed senior
secured notes is in line with the CFR, reflecting the fact that the
guaranteed senior secured notes represent most of the group's
financial debt. While the EUR46 million super senior RCF ranks
senior to the notes, its size is not enough to cause a notching
down of the guaranteed senior secured notes.

Moody's has assumed a 50% family recovery rate, as it is standard
for capital structures that include both bonds and bank debt. The
senior secured notes are secured by share pledges and are
guaranteed (with some limitations under Italian law) by
subsidiaries, representing at least 85% of the group's EBITDA.

RATIONALE FOR STABLE OUTLOOK

The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectation that Marcolin's
operating performance and credit metrics will continue improving
over the next one to two years, with leverage returning below 6.5x,
a level commensurate with the B3 rating category.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

Negative pressure on the rating could materialise if (1) the
company's Moody's adjusted gross debt /EBITDA remains above 6.5x on
a sustained basis; (2) it generates negative free cash flow for an
extended period of time; or (3) its  liquidity deteriorates
significantly.

Positive ratings pressure could arise if (1) Marcolin reduces its
Moody's-adjusted debt/EBITDA below 5.5x as a result of improved
operating performance or the use of  its large cash balance to
reduce debt; (2) its EBIT margin returns to high single-digit
levels in percentage terms; and (3) liquidity remains at least
adequate.

LIST OF AFFECTED RATINGS

Affirmations:

Issuer: Marcolin S.p.A.

Probability of Default Rating, Affirmed B3-PD

LT Corporate Family Rating, Affirmed B3

Senior Secured Regular Bond/Debenture, Affirmed B3

Outlook Actions:

Issuer: Marcolin S.p.A.

Outlook, Changed To Stable From Negative

PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY

The principal methodology used in these ratings was Consumer
Durables published in September 2021.

COMPANY PROFILE

Headquartered in Italy, Marcolin S.p.A. (Marcolin) is a leading
designer, manufacturer and distributor of eyewear, with a portfolio
of around 30 licensed brands. The group has a global presence in
both sunglasses and prescription frames. In 2021, the group
generated EUR455 million in revenue and EUR39 million in EBITDA
(Moody's adjusted). Since 2012, Marcolin has been controlled by
private equity sponsor PAI Partners.




===========
P O L A N D
===========

GETIN NOBLE: Fitch Puts 'CCC' LT IDRs on Rating Watch Evolving
--------------------------------------------------------------
Fitch Ratings has downgraded Getin Noble Bank S.A. (Getin)
Viability Rating (VR) to 'f' from 'cc'. At the same time, Fitch has
placed the bank's Long-Term Issuer Default Rating of 'CCC' on
Rating Watch Evolving (RWE).

The VR downgrade reflects the almost complete erosion of its common
equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio to just 0.5% at end-1Q22. This not only
constitutes a breach of its minimum regulatory requirement of 4.5%,
but Fitch considers it will not be able to continue to operate
without the injection of additional capital. This, under criteria
consists of a bank failure as the bank is now in need of
extraordinary support. Until that time, it will have to rely on
regulatory forbearance to be able to continue to operate.

The bank's IDR of 'CCC' was placed on RWE reflecting Fitch's view
that default on senior creditors is a real possibility but such
default may be avoided if the bank is allowed to continue to
operate using regulatory forbearance, or through the use of a
potential resolution scenario. The possibility that the rating is
downgraded further and that default become probable would be
triggered if such measures do not materialize, in which case the
risk of losses imposed on some senior creditors, including the
deposits which are not guaranteed by the Polish deposit guarantee
fund, would increase.

Fitch has withdrawn Getin's Support Rating and Support Rating Floor
as they are no longer relevant to the agency's coverage following
the publication of its updated Bank Rating Criteria on November 12,
2021. In line with the updated criteria, Fitch has assigned Getin a
Government Support Rating (GSR) of 'no support' (ns).

KEY RATING DRIVERS

The ratings of Getin predominantly reflect the virtual full erosion
of the bank's capital base through losses. In Fitch's view, in the
absence of extraordinary capital support the bank would need
significant and prolonged regulatory forbearance to operate, which
meets Fitch's definition of failure.

The bank's IDR is above its VR and GSR reflecting Fitch's view that
default on senior third-party non-government related creditor
obligation has not occurred. There is still a possibility, despite
the bank's failure that a resolution action on the bank, could
avoid imposing losses on senior creditors. This scenario is
rendered possible by the bank's reasonable liquidity and funding
structure largely based on guaranteed deposits. The bank's
liquidity remains reasonable with liquid assets covering about a
quarter of its customer deposits. The bank's liquidity coverage
ratio stood at 142% at end-1Q22.

On April 29, 2022, Getin published its 2021 annual report and its
1Q22 interim financial statements, which have shown the bank's
capital ratios are in breach of all capital requirements. The
breach was driven mainly by the bank booking of significant legal
risk provision related to its foreign currency mortgage loan
portfolio, combined with the amortization of IFRS 9 introduction
effect, the impact of revaluation of debt securities, and
additional loan loss impairments. As a result, the bank has had to
revalue in regulatory capital its deferred tax asset and equity
investments which further deepened the breach. The bank's auditor
did not provide an audit opinion on the bank's 2021 accounts citing
uncertainty around the bank's going concern assumption used to
prepare these financial statements.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to negative
rating action/downgrade:

-- Fitch expects to resolve the RWE on the bank's IDR once either

    a resolution of the bank is announced or if the bank is able
    to complete a strengthening of its capital through
    extraordinary support;

-- Fitch would downgrade the bank's IDR if there is an indication

    that the bank has become more likely to default on senior
    third-party non-government related creditors or if senior
    creditors are expected to bear some of the losses in
    resolution.

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to positive
rating action/upgrade:

-- Fitch expects to resolve the RWE on the bank's IDR once either

    the resolution of the bank is announced or the bank's capital
    strengthening is completed. Fitch would upgrade the bank's IDR
if
    the bank is sufficiently recapitalized or as part of the
    resolution it is taken over by a higher rated entity;

-- Fitch would upgrade the bank's VR if it addresses its
    regulatory capital shortfall. Upgrade of the bank's VR to
    'ccc+' or higher would also result in an upgrade of the bank's

    IDR.

NATIONAL RATINGS

The National Ratings are sensitive to changes in the bank's
Long-Term IDR.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT RATING

An upgrade of Getin's GSR would be contingent on a positive change
in the sovereign's propensity to support the bank, which Fitch does
not expect given the resolution legislation in place.

VR ADJUSTMENTS

The VR has been assigned below the implied VR due to the following
adjustment reason(s): Weakest Link - Capitalisation & Leverage
(negative).

The Business Profile score was assigned below the implied score of
'bb' due to the following adjustment reason(s): Business model
(negative)

Funding and Liquidity score has been assigned below the implied
score of 'bbb' due to the following adjustment reason(s): Deposit
Structure (negative), Foreign Currency Liquidity (negative),
Liquidity access and ordinary support (negative)

ESG CONSIDERATIONS

Unless otherwise disclosed in this section, the highest level of
ESG credit relevance is a score of '3'. This means ESG issues are
credit-neutral or have only a minimal credit impact on the entity,
either due to their nature or the way in which they are being
managed by the entity.

                    RATING                        PRIOR
                    ------                        -----
Getin Noble Bank S.A.

    LT IDR             CCC      Rating Watch On    CCC
    ST IDR             C        Rating Watch On    C
    Natl LT            B(pol)   Rating Watch On    B(pol)
    Natl ST            B(pol)   Rating Watch On    B(pol)
    Viability          f        Downgrade          cc
    Support            WD       Withdrawn          5
    Support Floor      WD       Withdrawn          NF
    Government Support ns       New Rating




===============
P O R T U G A L
===============

PELICAN MORTGAGES 4: Fitch Affirms B-sf Rating on 2 Tranches
------------------------------------------------------------
Fitch Ratings has upgraded Sagres, STC S.A. / Pelican Mortgages
No.3 Plc's (Pelican 3) notes and Sagres, STC S.A. / Pelican
Mortgages No.4 Plc's (Pelican 4) class A notes and affirmed the
class B, C, D and E notes.

   DEBT                  RATING                  PRIOR
   ----                  ------                  -----
Sagres, STC S.A. / Pelican Mortgages No.3 Plc

Class A XS0293657416    LT A+sf     Upgrade     BBBsf
Class B XS0293657689    LT A-sf     Upgrade     BBBsf
Class C XS0293657846    LT BBBsf    Upgrade     BB+sf
Class D XS0293657929    LT BBB-sf   Upgrade     BBsf

Sagres, STC S.A. / Pelican Mortgages No.4 Plc

Class A XS0365137990    LT AAsf     Upgrade     A+sf
Class B XS0365138295    LT A+sf     Affirmed    A+sf
Class C XS0365138964    LT BBB+sf   Affirmed    BBB+sf
Class D XS0365139004    LT B-sf     Affirmed    B-sf
Class E XS0365139939    LT B-sf     Affirmed    B-sf

TRANSACTION SUMMARY

The transactions are cash flow securitisations of Portuguese
residential mortgage loans originated by Caixa Economica Montepio
Geral, Caixa economica bancaria, S.A. (Montepio; B-/Positive/B).
The rating actions follow the annual review of the transactions.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

Payment Interruption Risk Cap Removed: Fitch now views payment
interruption risk (PIR) for both transactions as mitigated in the
event of a servicer disruption. We deem the available cash reserve
funds, which can be depleted by losses, relative to the current
amount of the notes as sufficient to cover stressed senior fees,
net swap payments and senior note interest due amounts while an
alternative servicer arrangement is implemented.

The cash reserves have remained at their target amount since
closing and Fitch expects them to remain sufficiently funded in the
medium term, based on the transactions' past and expected
performance. As a result, Fitch has removed the 'BBBsf' (Pelican 3)
and 'A+sf' (Pelican 4) cap on the notes' ratings in line with its
Structured Finance and Covered Bonds Counterparty Rating Criteria.

Resilient Asset Performance Through Pandemic: Over the last 12
months, asset performance remained stable for both transactions,
supported by high seasoning (from 14 to nine years), portfolio
deleveraging and sufficient credit enhancement (CE). The cumulative
gross default ratio is 1.05% for Pelican 3 and 1.91% for Pelican 4,
almost unchanged compared with last year. Payment holidays granted
during the coronavirus pandemic are now zero for both deals. As a
result, Fitch has removed its additional stresses in relation to
the coronavirus outbreak (see "Fitch Retires EMEA RMBS Coronavirus
Additional Stress Scenario Analysis, Except UK Non-Conforming"
dated 22 July 2022). The Outlook on Pelican 4's class E notes
remains Negative as this tranche is the most junior and has a low
level of credit enhancement, making it more sensitive to
performance deterioration.

'AAsf' Rating Cap: Pelican 4's class A notes' rating is capped at
the maximum achievable 'AAsf', six notches above Portugal's Issuer
Default Rating (IDR) in line with Fitch's Structured Finance and
Covered Bonds Country Risk Rating Criteria. The Stable Outlook is
aligned with that on the sovereign rating.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to negative
rating action/downgrade:
A downgrade of Portugal's Long-Term IDR could decrease the maximum
achievable rating for Portuguese structured-finance transactions,
and result in a downgrade of Pelican 4's class A notes. This is
because the class A notes are capped at the 'AAsf' maximum
achievable rating in Portugal, six notches above the sovereign
IDR.

Deterioration in asset performance beyond Fitch's assumptions could
also trigger negative rating action on the notes.

Fitch has revised its global economic outlook forecasts as a result
of the Ukraine war and related economic sanctions. Downside risks
have increased and we have published an assessment of the potential
rating and asset performance impact of a plausible, but worse-than
expected, adverse stagflation scenario on Fitch's major SF and CVB
sub-sectors (What a Stagflation Scenario Would Mean for Global
Structured Finance). Fitch expects the EMEA RMBS sector in the
assumed adverse scenario to experience a "Mild to Modest Impact" on
asset performance, driven primarily by higher energy costs, and
"Virtually No Impact" on ratings performance, indicating a low risk
of rating changes.

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to positive
rating action/upgrade:
An upgrade of Portugal's Long-Term IDR could increase the maximum
achievable rating for Portuguese structured finance transactions
and result in an upgrade of Pelican 4's class A notes.

The notes could also be upgraded if CE ratios increase as
transactions deleverage, and are able to fully compensate the
credit losses and cash flow stresses that are commensurate with
higher rating scenarios, all else being equal.

BEST/WORST CASE RATING SCENARIO

International scale credit ratings of Structured Finance
transactions have a best-case rating upgrade scenario (defined as
the 99th percentile of rating transitions, measured in a positive
direction) of seven notches over a three-year rating horizon; and a
worst-case rating downgrade scenario (defined as the 99th
percentile of rating transitions, measured in a negative direction)
of seven notches over three years. The complete span of best- and
worst-case scenario credit ratings for all rating categories ranges
from 'AAAsf' to 'Dsf'. Best- and worst-case scenario credit ratings
are based on historical performance.

USE OF THIRD PARTY DUE DILIGENCE PURSUANT TO SEC RULE 17G -10
Form ABS Due Diligence-15E was not provided to, or reviewed by,
Fitch in relation to this rating action.

DATA ADEQUACY

Sagres, STC S.A. / Pelican Mortgages No.3 Plc, Sagres, STC S.A. /
Pelican Mortgages No.4 Plc

Fitch has checked the consistency and plausibility of the
information it has received about the performance of the asset
pool[s] and the transaction[s]. Fitch has not reviewed the results
of any third party assessment of the asset portfolio information or
conducted a review of origination files as part of its ongoing
monitoring.

Fitch did not undertake a review of the information provided about
the underlying asset pools ahead of the transaction's Sagres, STC
S.A. / Pelican Mortgages No.3 Plc, Sagres, STC S.A. / Pelican
Mortgages No.4 Plc initial closing. The subsequent performance of
the transactions over the years is consistent with the agency's
expectations given the operating environment and Fitch is therefore
satisfied that the asset pool information relied upon for its
initial rating analysis was adequately reliable.

Overall, and together with any assumptions referred to above,
Fitch's assessment of the information relied upon for the agency's
rating analysis according to its applicable rating methodologies
indicates that it is adequately reliable.

ESG CONSIDERATIONS

Unless otherwise disclosed in this section, the highest level of
ESG credit relevance is a score of '3'. This means ESG issues are
credit-neutral or have only a minimal credit impact on the entity,
either due to their nature or the way in which they are being
managed by the entity.



=========
S P A I N
=========

BOLUDA TOWAGE: Moody's Cuts CFR to B2 & Alters Outlook to Stable
----------------------------------------------------------------
Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the corporate family
rating to B2 from B1 and the probability of default rating to B2-PD
from B1-PD of Boluda Towage S.L. (Boluda or the company).
Concurrently, Moody's has downgraded to B2 from B1 instrument
ratings of the company's EUR290 million backed senior secured term
loan B2, EUR600 million backed senior secured term loan B1 and
EUR90 million backed senior secured revolving credit facility
(RCF). The outlook was changed to stable from negative.

"The rating action reflects our expectations that despite the very
visible recovery in operating performance, key credit metrics will
still not be commensurate with a B1 rating" says Daniel Harlid,
VP-Senior Analyst and the Lead Analyst for Boluda. "We continue to
favorably view Boluda's business profile and critical importance in
the maritime ecosystem and expect that credit metrics will
strengthen over the next 2-3 years", Mr. Harlid added.

RATINGS RATIONALE

Although revenue and EBITDA has gradually recovered from pandemic
lows in the second quarter of 2020, the pace has been slower than
expected by Moody's. This resulted in a Moody's-adjusted EBITA
margin of 8.5% and a Moody's-adjusted debt / EBITDA ratio of 8.1x
for 2021 versus 12.9% and 6.5x in 2019. That being said, Moody's
notes positively that the company still generated positive, however
low, free cash flow and maintained good liquidity at all times.
Despite Moody's expectations for operating performance to continue
improving, key credit ratios will still be outside the requirements
for the B1 rating category for the next 12-18 months. When the
rating was assigned in 2019 Moody's expected a material
deleveraging of the company's capital structure, which has been
weaker than expected.

Moody's believes that Boluda's business profile enables the company
to achieve stable performance through a normal business cycle. The
rating assessment also incorporates the company's long history of
operating as the sole tug operator in Spanish and French ports,
creating high barriers to entry. Further underpinning the rating is
the company's relatively conservative financial policy, evidenced
by the Boluda family's history of reinvesting results into the
business rather than paying dividends.

RATIONALE FOR STABLE OUTLOOK

The stable outlook incorporates a continued recovery in port
traffic in Europe, where Boluda will gradually grow revenue and
EBITDA back toward 2019 levels. This is expected to result in an of
EBITA margin of 9% - 11% and debt / EBITDA of around 6-7x over the
next 12-18 months. During this time, Moody's also expects that the
company will continue to control capex spend in a way that
safeguards continued positive free cash flow generation.

LIQUIDITY PROFILE

Boluda's liquidity is good, supported by a cash balance of EUR55
million as of December 31, 2021, and a RCF of EUR90 million with a
tenor of 6.5 years, of which EUR19.5 has been drawn. Working
capital swings are virtually nonexistent. The largest use of the
EUR100 million annual funds from operations (per Moody's
projections) will be toward capital spending for dry docking and
new vessels, amounting to EUR60 million - EUR80 million over the
next 12-18 months. The terms of the RCF require compliance with one
springing covenant, which needs to be tested when the facility is
drawn by more than 40% and which, Moody's understand, is set with
ample headroom.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

Positive ratings pressure would build if Boluda would be able to
decrease Moody's-adjusted debt / EBITDA below 6.0x, an
EBITA/Interest Coverage Ratio of above 2.0x and at the same time
show an EBITA margin in the mid-teens percentage wise. A
prerequisite for a ratings upgrade would be to continue generating
meaningful free cash flow and maintaining good liquidity at all
times.

Negative ratings pressure would result from the company failing to
reduce and sustain a debt / EBITDA ratio comfortably below 7.0x
while sustaining a EBITA margin below 10%. A weakening liquidity
profile and free cash flow moving toward zero would also cause
negative ratings pressure.

PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY

The principal methodology used in these ratings was Business and
Consumer Services published in November 2021.

COMPANY PROFILE

Headquartered in Madrid, Spain, Boluda is one of the world's
largest providers of maritime towage and related services. Its
origins date back to the early 19th century and the company has
since the start been owned by the same family, Boluda Fos. The
company's fleet of close to 300 tug vessels generates the bulk of
its revenue in Europe but has operations in Africa and Latin
America as well. In 2021 the company reported revenue of EUR464
million and EBITDA of EUR125 million.




===========
T U R K E Y
===========

TAKASBANK: Fitch Affirms B+ Issuer Default Ratings, Outlook Neg.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Fitch Ratings has affirmed Istanbul Takas ve Saklama Bankasi A.S.'s
(Takasbank) Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default
Ratings (IDRs) at 'B+' with Negative Outlooks. At the same time,
Fitch has downgraded Takasbank's Viability Rating (VR) to 'b' from
'b+' and removed it from Rating Watch Negative (RWN).

Fitch had placed Takasbank's VR on RWN on February 25, 2022
following the downgrade of the Turkish sovereign rating to reflect
Fitch's view that Takasbank's credit and counterparty risk
exposures, notably in its treasury activities, had increased after
the VRs of some of its largest counterparties were placed on RWN.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

The VR downgrade reflects Fitch's view that following the downgrade
of the VRs of Takasbank's major bank counterparties in early April,
its credit and counterparty risk exposures have increased and are
now commensurate with but not above the risk of Turkey's 'b'
operating environment. While Fitch views Takasbank's credit and
market risks in its core clearing activities as well-managed and in
isolation supporting a VR above Turkey's operating environment,
Fitch's overall assessment is weighed down by Takasbank's
considerable concentration risk in its sizeable treasury
activities.

Bank counterparty risk is particularly pronounced in Takasbank's
non-clearing treasury activities, which account for around 40% of
revenue. The size of treasury placements is variable but typically
accounts for up to 10x Takasbank's equity base, increasing
Takasbank's sensitivity to worsening commercial banks' credit
quality. Turkey's large banks (with VRs at 'b') are consistently
the largest counterparties in Takasbank's treasury activities.

Takasbank's Long-Term 'B+' IDRs and 'b+' Government Support Rating
(GSR) reflect Fitch's view of a high propensity of support from the
Turkish sovereign, in case of need. Takasbank's GSR is higher than
most commercial systemically important domestic banks'. This is
because, in Fitch's opinion, Takasbank has exceptionally high
systemic importance for the Turkish financial sector. Contagion
risk from Takasbank's default would be considerable, given the
bank's inter-connectedness with the wider Turkish financial sector
as Turkey's only central counterparty clearing house (CCP).

The affirmation of the National Long-Term Rating at 'AAA(tur)' with
Stable Outlook reflects Fitch's view of Takasbank's unchanged
creditworthiness relative to other domestic issuers'.

Takasbank's VR is underpinned by the bank's dominant franchise as
the country's only clearing house. In the context of Turkey's weak
operating environment, it is further supported by sound
counterparty risk management, limited direct credit risk in its CCP
activities (supported by sound risk controls and availability of
adequate default-management resources), as well as adequate
capitalisation and liquidity. However, the VR also reflects
considerable concentration risk in its CCP activities and increased
credit risk appetite in its non-CCP activities.

Takasbank is Turkey's only CCP and is majority-owned by Borsa
Istanbul, Turkey's main stock exchange. Borsa Istanbul is in turn
majority-owned by the Turkey Wealth Fund (B+/Negative). It operates
under a limited banking licence, and is regulated by three Turkish
regulatory bodies: Central Bank of Turkey, Banking Regulation and
Supervision Agency and the Capital Markets Board.

ESG Influence

Takasbank has an ESG relevance score of '4' for governance
structure, reflecting potential government influence over the
board's strategy and governance effectiveness.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to negative
rating action/downgrade:

-- A downgrade of Turkey's sovereign rating would be mirrored in
Takasbank's IDRs

-- Deterioration in the credit profiles of Takasbank's main
commercial bank counterparties would put pressure on Takasbank's
VR

-- A material operational loss or a materially increased risk
appetite, for example, in the bank's treasury activities,
particularly to lower credit-quality counterparties, would also put
pressure on Takasbank's VR

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to positive
rating action/upgrade:

-- A positive rating action on Turkey's sovereign rating would
likely be mirrored in Takasbank's IDRs

-- Improvement of the credit profiles of Takasbank's main
commercial bank counterparties or a material reduction in the size
or concentration of Takasbank's treasury activities could, in
conjunction with unchanged or improving financial profile metrics,
lead to an upgrade of Takasbank's VR

PUBLIC RATINGS WITH CREDIT LINKAGE TO OTHER RATINGS

Takasbank's ratings are driven by Turkey's sovereign ratings.

ESG CONSIDERATIONS

Takasbank has an ESG Relevance Score of '4' for governance
structure due to potential government influence over the board's
strategy and governance, which has a negative impact on the credit
profile, and is relevant to the ratings in conjunction with other
factors.

Unless otherwise disclosed in this section, the highest level of
ESG credit relevance is a score of '3'. This means ESG issues are
credit-neutral or have only a minimal credit impact on the entity,
either due to their nature or the way in which they are being
managed by the entity.

Rating Actions

Istanbul Takas ve Saklama
Bankasi A.S. - Takasbank
                         LT IDR         B+      Affirmed  B+
                         ST IDR         B       Affirmed  B
                         LC LT IDR      B+      Affirmed  B+
                         LC ST IDR      B       Affirmed  B
                         Natl LT       AAA(tur) Affirmed  AAA(tur)

                         Viability      b       Downgrade b+
                         Gov't Support  b+      Affirmed  b+


[*] Fitch Affirms 7 Turkish Non-Bank Institution Subsidiaries
-------------------------------------------------------------
Fitch Ratings has affirmed five Turkish subsidiaries of large
locally-owned private banks and two Turkish subsidiaries of a large
foreign-owned bank at their Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer
Default Ratings (LTFC IDRs) of 'B'.

The five subsidiaries are Ak Finansal Kiralama A.S., Is Finansal
Kiralama A.S., Yapi Kredi Finansal Kiralama A.O., Yapi Kredi
Faktoring A.S., Yapi Kredi Yatirim Menkul Degerler A.S. (Yapi Kredi
Yatirim). The other two are Garanti Faktoring A.S. and Garanti
Finansal Kiralama A.S. and belong to Turkiye Garanti Bankasi
(Garanti BBVA).

The Rating Watch Negative (RWN) on Long-Term Local-Currency (LTLC)
IDRs on the locally-owned non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs)
has been removed and the LTLC IDRs are affirmed at 'B+'.

The Outlooks are Negative.

The ratings are equalised with those of their parents, reflecting
Fitch's view that they are core and highly integrated
subsidiaries.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

LTFC IDRs

The ratings of the NBFI subsidiaries reflect their roles within
their respective groups, through enhancing the parents' franchises,
product offering and growth prospects, and their majority ownership
by their parents (or parent group affiliates). The subsidiaries
offer core products and services (leasing, factoring and investment
banking/brokerage) in the domestic Turkish market.

The Negative Outlook on the LTFC IDRs reflects operating
environment challenges and their implications on the credit
profiles of their banking groups.

All companies in this review share the same branding as their
parents, and are highly integrated into their banking groups in
risk and IT system. They also draw most of their senior management
and underwriting practices from their respective parent banks. The
subsidiaries benefit from their parents' strong franchises by
sharing a significant part of the customer base. The cost of
support would be low as the subsidiaries are small relative to
their parents; total assets do not exceed 5% of group assets
(mostly 2%-3%).

Given the above factors, Fitch believes support from parent banks
is highly probable.

Is Finansal Kiralama, Yapi Kredi Finansal Kiralama, Garanti
Finansal Kiralama and Ak Finansal Kiralama are among the leaders in
the Turkish leasing sector. They predominantly run financial
leasing with contract tenors of three to five years. Long-term
funding remains a challenge in Turkey, as the leasing business
model is exposed to interest-rate and refinancing risks.

Leasing companies focus on equipment and energy. Lira-denominated
leasing comprised 20%-35% at end-2021, exposing companies to
foreign-exchange (FX) risks. Impairment levels were moderate at
3%-12% of gross financing, but heightened pressure on profitability
is expected, which has so far been reasonable (return on average
equity of 11%-36% in 2021), as the cost of funding increases.

Garanti Faktoring's and Yapi Kredi Faktoring's business models
focus on factoring, with a short operational cycle of 50-70 days
and domestic factoring remains the core product. Factoring books
are both predominantly lira-denominated (68% and 52% respectively).
Both factoring companies' asset quality was stable in 2021 with
impaired receivables ratios remaining moderate at around 1.6% and
2.5%, respectively, of gross receivables.

Yapi Kredi Yatirim is an investment company focusing on equity and
derivative transactions. Its balance sheet is short-term on both
sides, limiting its exposure to the volatile lira interest rates.
Profitability benefited from market volatility and commission
income increased to TRY0.7 billion in 2021 (2020: TRY 0.5
billion).

With limited foreign-currency-adjusted growth and
smaller-than-expected losses, capital positions remained stable for
all the companies in 2021 and were above regulatory requirements.
Fitch views regulatory requirements as loose, with a minimum 3%
equity/assets ratio. The companies' leverage, defined as
debt-to-tangible equity, has increased.

All the companies have proven access to bank funding and capital
markets, although third-party funding remains predominantly
short-term (up to four months). Fitch also believes that ordinary
support and potential availability of funding from strong parent
banks underpins the funding profiles of all the companies and
mitigates refinancing risks (heightened for leasing subsidiaries).

LTLC IDRs, NATIONAL AND SUPPORT RATINGS

The LTLC IDRs of 'B+' mirrors those of their respective parents and
reflect the sovereign's greater ability to provide support in local
currency than foreign currencies.

The Outlooks on the LTLC IDRs are Negative and reflect heightened
operating-environment pressures but also consider the on the
Turkish sovereign Outlook.

The affirmation of National Ratings at 'A+(tur)' for subsidiaries
of local private banks and at 'AA(tur)' for Garanti Finansal
Kiralama and Garanti Faktoring reflects our view that their
respective creditworthiness in local currency relative to other
Turkish issuers remains unchanged.

Mirroring the parent banks, the Negative Outlook on the 'A+(tur)'
National Ratings for the five subsidiaries of local private banks
reflects those on their LTLC IDRs. The Negative Outlooks reflect
risks to the local parents' standalone credit profiles relative to
domestic peers' amid heightened operating environment pressures.

The Shareholder Support Ratings of 'b' are all affirmed, and are
capped by respective parents' creditworthiness and hence reflect
limited probability of support.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

The subsidiaries' ratings are sensitive to changes in the parents'
ratings and Fitch's view of the ability and willingness of the
parents to provide support in case of need.

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to negative
rating action/downgrade:

-- The ratings are sensitive to further marked deterioration in
the operating environment or a sovereign downgrade.

-- The ratings of the NBFI subsidiaries may be notched down from
their respective parents' if the subsidiaries become materially
larger relative to the respective banks' ability to provide
support; or the subsidiaries' strategic importance is materially
reduced through, for example, a substantial reduction in business
referrals, levels of operational and management integration,
reduced ownership or a prolonged period of underperformance.
However, these considerations do not form part of Fitch's base
case, given the subsidiaries' small size relative to their parents'
and key roles within their respective groups.

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to positive
rating action/upgrade:

-- The Outlooks on the Long-Term IDRs could be revised to Stable,
following a similar rating action on the parent banks, reflecting
reduced operating environment risks.

-- Upgrades of Long-Term IDRs are unlikely in the short term given
the Negative Outlooks.

ESG CONSIDERATIONS

Unless otherwise disclosed in this section, the highest level of
ESG credit relevance is a score of '3'. This means ESG issues are
credit-neutral or have only a minimal credit impact on the entity,
either due to their nature or the way in which they are being
managed by the entity.

Rating Actions

                                     Rating             Prior
                                     ------             -----
Is Finansal Kiralama
Anonim Sirketi
                    LT IDR               B       Affirmed  B
                    ST IDR               B       Affirmed  B
                    LC LT IDR            B+      Affirmed  B+
                    LC ST IDR            B       Affirmed  B
                    Natl LT              A+(tur) Affirmed  A+(tur)

                    Shareholder Support  b       Affirmed  b

Ak Finansal Kiralama A.S.

                    LT IDR               B       Affirmed  B
                    ST IDR               B       Affirmed  B
                    LC LT IDR            B+      Affirmed  B+
                    LC ST IDR            B       Affirmed  B
                    Natl LT              A+(tur) Affirmed  A+(tur)

                    Shareholder Support  b       Affirmed  b

Yapi Kredi Finansal
Kiralama A.O.

                    LT IDR               B       Affirmed  B
                    ST IDR               B       Affirmed  B
                    LC LT IDR            B+      Affirmed  B+
                    LC ST IDR            B       Affirmed  B
                    Natl LT              A+(tur) Affirmed  A+(tur)

                    Shareholder Support  b       Affirmed  b

Garanti Finansal
Kiralama A.S.

                     LT IDR              B       Affirmed  B
                     ST IDR              B       Affirmed  B
                     LC LT IDR           B+      Affirmed  B+
                     LC ST IDR           B       Affirmed  B
                     Natl LT             AA(tur) Affirmed  AA(tur)

                     Shareholder Support b       Affirmed  b

Yapi Kredi Faktoring A.S.
        
                     LT IDR              B       Affirmed  B
                     ST IDR              B       Affirmed  B
                     LC LT IDR           B+      Affirmed  B+
                     LC ST IDR           B       Affirmed  B
                     Natl LT             A+(tur) Affirmed  A+(tur)

                     Shareholder Support b       Affirmed  b

Yapi Kredi Yatirim
Menkul Degerler A.S.

                     LT IDR              B       Affirmed  B
                     ST IDR              B       Affirmed  B
                     LC LT IDR           B+      Affirmed  B+
                     LC ST IDR           B       Affirmed  B
                     Natl LT             A+(tur) Affirmed  A+(tur)

                     Shareholder Support b       Affirmed  b

Garanti Faktoring A.S.

                     LT IDR              B       Affirmed  B
                     ST IDR              B       Affirmed  B
                     LC LT IDR           B+      Affirmed  B+
                     LC ST IDR           B       Affirmed  B
                     Natl LT             AA(tur) Affirmed  AA(tur)

                     Shareholder Support b       Affirmed  b




===========================
U N I T E D   K I N G D O M
===========================

BRIGHTHOUSE: Customers May Not Get Refunds, Administrators Say
--------------------------------------------------------------
Kalyeena Makortoff at The Guardian reports that administrators for
the collapsed rent-to-own firm BrightHouse, which specialised in
loans for big-ticket items such as fridges and sofas, have warned
they will not have enough money to compensate thousands of
customers who were left with unaffordable debts.

According to The Guardian, the latest report from the accountants
Grant Thornton, which is managing the administration, shows a plan
to set aside GBP600,000 for payouts to customers who may have been
mis-sold expensive loans by BrightHouse has been scrapped.

Meanwhile, a number of creditors have received large sums, The
Guardian states.  They include the supply chain finance firm
Greensill, which is itself in administration after collapsing last
year, The Guardian discloses.  Greensill -- or its creditors --
have received nearly GBP31 million, according to The Guardian.

Before it went bust in 2020, BrightHouse offered high-interest
rent-to-own contracts to customers who would otherwise struggle to
afford the upfront costs of household goods such as fridges, ovens,
TVs and sofas.  It charged interest of up to 69.9%, which, on top
of service and insurance fees, could mean customers were paying two
to three times the cost of the item on the high street.

Grant Thornton originally set aside up to GBP600,000 to deal with
more than 11,000 affordability claims from customers who fear they
may have been mis-sold loans, The Guardian states.  But its latest
report, published in late April, reveals that the administrators
plan to seek court permission to scrap the compensation pot after
deciding that the cost would be too high, The Guardian notes.

"Given the likely significant volume and complexity of customers'
affordability claims . . . it is the administrators' expectation
that the cost associated with assessing these claims would far
exceed the funds available for distribution," The Guardian quotes
the report as saying.

"As a result of the above, the administrators are seeking to make
an application to the court in the coming period to seek to
disapply the prescribed part," it added.

Under the original plans, customers would have been due refunds for
fees and interest, as well as an additional 8% interest on that sum
dating back to the start of their loan, The Guardian discloses.

Meanwhile, administrators confirmed they had hired a debt
collection agency to "improve" repayments from customers and
"maximise" payouts for creditors, The Guardian relays.  Those
creditors have included Greensill Capital, whose collapse last year
sparked a wave of political scandals, The Guardian notes.

Greensill, which specialised in offering advances on company
invoices for a fee, issued loans to BrightHouse in 2018.  As a
lender, Greensill was counted as a secured creditor, putting it at
the front of the queue for repayment when its customer,
BrightHouse, went bust, The Guardian states.  The administrators'
report confirmed that Greensill was repaid in full, receiving a
total of GBP30.86 million in 2020 -- a year before it collapsed
into administration, The Guardian notes.

According to The Guardian, a spokesperson for administrators at
Grant Thornton, which is also handling Greensill's wind-down in the
UK, said they were carrying out their obligations in line with UK
insolvency rules and have distributed assets from BrightHouse "as
required by legislation".


CO-OPERATIVE GROUP: S&P Lowers ICR to 'BB-' on Weaker Profitability
-------------------------------------------------------------------
S&P Global Ratings lowered its long-term issuer credit rating on
U.K.-based convenience store operator and funeral care provider
Co-operative Group Ltd. (Co-op) and its issue rating on its senior
unsecured notes due in 2024 and 2026 to 'BB-' from 'BB', and its
issue rating on Co-op's subordinated notes due 2025 to 'B+' from
'BB-'.

The negative outlook indicates the risk of a slower recovery than
S&P anticipates in Co-op's profitability and FOCF generation. This
could stall an improvement in the group's credit metrics over the
next 12-24 months, namely, an adjusted EBITDA margin persistently
less than 5%, EBITDAR cash interest and rent coverage of less than
2x, and negative FOCF after full lease payments.

S&P said, "Liquidity is not an imminent issue, but the liquidity
buffer could diminish in the event of a more prolonged or harsher
trading disruption than we anticipate, weighing on Co-op's
debt-refinancing prospects. Co-op saw a drastic cash outflow in
2021, with FOCF after leases of negative GBP427 million, of which
about GBP300 million went on working capital. However, Co-op
indicated that as of April 7, 2022, it received about GBP157
million by collecting its receivables and accruals. The receipt of
a GBP68 million legacy payment related to the discontinued
insurance business further bolstered the group's liquidity and
reduced leverage. We therefore estimate that the group's liquidity
is adequate. At the same time, we anticipate that near-term
volatility in earnings and working capital will remain elevated on
account of unrelenting competition, cost inflation, and the
susceptibility of the supply chain to disruption. Although it is
not our central assumption at this stage, a prolonged period of
disruption in the retail and capital markets could pose a risk to
the group's liquidity position, particularly if the GBP300 million
sustainability bond due in May 2024 and the revolving credit
facility (RCF) due in September 2024 are not refinanced at least 12
months in advance.

"Cost inflation could last longer and have a greater effect than we
anticipate, hampering Co-op's ability to recover its margins to
historical levels over our two-year forecast horizon.Co-op posted
adjusted EBITDA of GBP494 million in 2021, with a 4.4% margin, for
the first time falling below the 5%-10% range we consider average
for food retailers. We anticipate that the group's efforts in
managing the efficiency of its retail and funeral care operations
may be insufficient to offset the inflationary pressure across the
cost base. At the same time, regulation of the pre-paid funeral
business will likely add to the margin constraints that the group
faces in the next 12-24 months. Moreover, there is uncertainty over
the near-term impact on Co-op's profitability and cash flow of its
investment in the development of its own e-commerce channel and the
upgrade of the IT systems in the funeral care business that
commenced in 2021. This means that Co-op could fail to improve its
adjusted EBITDA margin to the 5% we consider average for grocers.
In our base case, we forecast adjusted EBITDA margins of 4.6% in
2022 and 4.8%-5.0% in 2023.

"Co-op's concentration on the convenience retail market and the
expansion of its e-commerce channel will support topline growth in
the next two-to-three years, but may still be insufficient to
preserve its market position. With GBP7.5 billion in food retail
sales in 2021, Co-op had a 6.0% share of the U.K. market as of
April 17, 2022, according to data analytics firm Kantar. This is
not materially different from the 6.1% market share that Co-op held
in the same period in 2019 and in the years before, with the
exception of a temporary spike in 2020. However, it has lost its
position as the fifth-largest grocery retailer behind Tesco,
Sainsburys, ASDA, and Morrisons, and has fallen behind both Aldi
and Lidl. Together, both discounters now have a 15.4% market share,
with Lidl having consistently surpassed Co-op's 6% share since
April 2021. With Co-op's focus on restoring cash flows, we think
that the group may need to constrain expansionary capital
expenditure (capex) and may be unable to invest sufficiently to
preserve its position in the market. This, together with weaker
profitability, may lead us to reassess the group's competitive
standing and the long-term resilience of its business model.

"Co-op is in a good position to capitalize on the positive trend in
its topline relative to the pre-pandemic level and on the
efficiency measures it has completed.Notwithstanding the
year-on-year revenue decline in 2021, Co-op's topline and
like-for-like growth were positive vis-à-vis the pre-pandemic
levels in 2019. For example, consolidated revenues were 2.7% higher
and food retail revenues were 2.2% higher than the respective 2019
levels. We consider that Co-op's focus on the growing convenience
segment of the food retail market, its broad footprint of
well-invested stores, and its expanding e-commerce channel support
the group's competitive position. The restructuring measures that
Co-op has undertaken across its food and funeral care operations in
recent years should strengthen its profitability in the near term.
Enhanced purchasing power across the food retail, wholesale, and
federal operations supports the group's negotiating position with
suppliers to a greater degree than the stand-alone food retail
operations, which generate GBP7.5 billion-GBP8.0 billion in annual
revenue. Moreover, the retail business transformation program and
transition to a more agile IT platform in the food segment, both
completed in 2021, will support the efficiency of the group's
operations in the near term and will likely contribute to an
improvement in profitability and working capital. We think that the
updated IT platform and progress in refurbishing and refitting
stores to modern standards will enhance the group's ability to get
on top of its merchandising and nimbly adjust to customer
preferences. We see all these factors as supporting the resilience
of the group's business model and competitive edge.

"The negative outlook indicates the risk of a slower recovery than
we anticipate in Co-op's profitability and FOCF generation, which
could stall an improvement in the group's credit metrics over the
next 12-24 months. We think that cost inflation and stiff price
competition in the retail and wholesale food and funeral care
segments will continue challenging the group's profitability and
result in adjusted EBITDA margins persistently falling short of 5%.
In our base case, we forecast that adjusted leverage will remain
elevated at about 4.5x-4.7x, alongside funds from operations (FFO)
to debt of 12%-15%, weak EBITDAR to cash interest and rent coverage
of 1.9x-2.0x, and close to neutral FOCF after full lease payments.

"We also note an elevated risk of the group failing to improve its
cash generation, and of FOCF after leases staying significantly
negative following the exceptionally high outflow of about GBP427
million in 2021. Moreover, although it is not our central
expectation at this stage, an inability to improve cash flows and
reduce leverage could make it difficult for Co-op to refinance its
debt maturing in 2024 or constrain its access to additional
liquidity."

S&P could lower the ratings if it adopts a less favorable view of
Co-op's competitive standing because of sustained unfavorable
industry trends or poor execution of its strategic plans. S&P could
also downgrade Co-op if its financial credit metrics fail to
improve. In particular, this could happen if Co-op's:

-- Market share or competitive position continue to decline;

-- Adjusted EBITDA margin remains notably less than 5%.

-- Adjusted debt to EBITDA persists at close to 5x.

-- FOCF after full lease payments is consistently negative.

-- Liquidity weakens, either due to high working capital swings
depleting availability under the RCF, or covenant headroom
shrinking to less than 15%.

-- Refinancing of its debt maturing in 2024 is delayed to less
than 12 months before the maturity date.

S&P could revise the outlook to stable if Co-op manages to improve
its working capital and demonstrates discipline in its cost
management and execution of its merchandising strategy, such that:

-- Adjusted debt to EBITDA is on track to decline to close to 4x.

-- FOCF after full lease payments is sustainably neutral.

-- The group is on track to restore profitability to a sustainable
adjusted EBITDA margin of close to 5%.

ESG credit indicators: E-2, S-2, G-3

S&P said, "Governance factors are a moderately negative
consideration in our credit rating analysis of Co-op. We factor in
the improvements that Co-op made in its financial controls to
rectify weaknesses identified after the Nisa acquisition. These
weaknesses were fully remediated by the time of the release of the
audited 2021 accounts. We note positively that the group has
developed and made progress in a comprehensive plan to improve its
financial controls across all divisions, including its retail and
funeral care segments. We follow the group's progress in setting up
a regulatory compliance framework in anticipation of the
introduction of prepaid funeral plan regulation by Financial
Conduct Authority from July 29, 2022. We factor in the risks of
operating that part of the funeral care business in a regulated
environment.

"Environmental and social factors have a neutral influence overall
on our credit rating analysis of Co-op. The group supports numerous
sustainability and social causes and invested GBP41 million in
community projects in 2021. In its cost-saving efforts, the group
benefits from Co-op Power -- the biggest energy-buying co-operative
in the U.K. -- which sources 100% renewable electricity for its own
use and on behalf of its brand partners."


CONTOURGLOBAL PLC: Fitch Affirms 'BB-' IDRs, Outlook Stable
-----------------------------------------------------------
Fitch Ratings has affirmed ContourGlobal Plc's Long-Term Issuer
Default Rating (IDR) at 'BB-' with a Stable Outlook. Fitch has also
affirmed ContourGlobal Power Holdings S.A.'s (CGPH) senior secured
notes and super senior secured revolving credit facility (RCF) at
'BB+', with a Recovery Rating of 'RR2'.

The affirmation reflects the predictable cash flows from
ContourGlobal's portfolio of generating assets, supported by
long-term contracts, regulated capacity or regulated
cost-of-service payments. The assets have an average remaining
contracted or regulated life of about nine years with limited
exposure to changes in electricity demand.

The ratings also reflect ContourGlobal's exposure to re-contracting
risk, with about 46% of its contract portfolio by capacity due for
new contracts in 2022-2025. However, this is partially offset by
higher merchant prices in Europe, the importance of its thermal
generation portfolio in its key markets and management's proactive
measures to manage contract renewals.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

Long-Term Re-contracting Risks: The most significant asset due for
new contracts in our four-year rating horizon is the Maritsa
lignite-fired power plant in Bulgaria (representing about 15% of
adjusted EBITDA for 2021) with its power purchase agreements (PPA)
expiring in 2024.

The PPA of another significant asset, Spain-based Arrubal, an 800
megawatt gas-fired power plant providing ancillary services (about
10% of adjusted EBITDA) expired in July 2021. The plant now
operates on a fully merchant basis and is benefiting from currently
high prices. Fitch assumes that Arrubal will be re-contracted,
limiting the group's merchant exposure.

High Dividends Limit Stronger Financial Profile: ContourGlobal's
financial policy prioritises a progressive dividend policy of 10%
growth per year. We expect the company to take a disciplined
approach to asset selection and acquisitions, focusing on renewable
and low-carbon thermal assets with good cash flow predictability,
while maintaining its holdco-only funds from operations (FFO)
leverage below our negative rating sensitivity of 4.5x. We forecast
holdco-only FFO leverage to average about 4.3x in 2022-2023, which
results in limited rating headroom. The company's financial policy
targets maintenance of a 'BB' category rating.

Stronger Post-Acquisition Business Profile: The acquisition of
generating assets from Western Generation Partners, LLC (WGP) was
completed in February 2021 adding about 1.5 gigawatt (GW) of
generation, mainly gas-fired power plants in the US, and increasing
the company's installed capacity by almost 30%. The acquisition
also increased ContourGlobal's geographic diversification, with
entry into the US market, and technological diversification, adding
low-carbon assets.

Sale of Brazil Hydro: ContourGlobal is selling its Brazil hydro
power plants to Infraestutura Brasil Holding XVII S.A for USD313
million, with total liabilities of about USD153 million. It expects
to generate net proceeds of about USD110 million from the disposal,
which will be reinvested in new growth opportunities or returned to
shareholders. The transaction is subject to customary shareholder
and regulatory approvals.

In our view, the disposal is neutral to the debt capacity for the
rating. Although the hydro plants have longest remaining contract
of 25 years providing cash-flow visibility, this is offset by a
reduction in foreign currency exchange (FX) risk in the company's
portfolio of assets.

Commodity Risk Mitigated: ContourGlobal has low exposure to spot
market prices, so high carbon, gas, oil and other fuel prices are
not expected to materially affect its cash flow. The company's
non-renewable plants benefit from PPAs and fuel and CO2 emissions
pass-through mechanisms with Arrubal the only asset with exposure
to merchant risk. Contracts representing about 80% of adjusted
EBITDA benefit from inflation protection.

Expanding, More Diversified Asset Base: ContourGlobal continues to
increase the scale and diversification of its asset portfolio by
geography, fuel type and counterparty concentration risk through
acquisitions largely financed with non-recourse project debt.
Pro-forma adjusted EBITDA in 2021 was split (excluding Brazil hydro
and including Green Hunter solar in Italy) between Europe (50%),
LatAm (32%), US & Caribbean (9%) and Africa (9%). In terms of
technology, EBITDA was split between thermal (47%), renewables
(37%), and high-efficiency cogeneration (16%, mainly natural gas).

Long-Term Contracts Support Earnings: ContourGlobal's predictable
earnings are underpinned by long-term contracts, regulated capacity
and regulated cost-of-service payments, which accounted for about
98% of total revenue in 2021. The weighted average remaining
contracted or regulated life was about nine years as of
end-December 2021.

The contracts are typically with state-owned or state-supported
utilities or large investment-grade companies. The average credit
rating of counterparties is 'BBB-'.

No Impact from Parent Linkage: Fitch considers its Parent and
Subsidiary Linkage (PSL) Rating Criteria does not apply to
ContourGlobal, due to its ultimate majority ownership by a private
equity investor or a similar financial investor, so we rate
ContourGlobal on a standalone basis. ContourGlobal is 71% owned by
ContourGlobal L.P., whose ultimate parent is Reservoir Capital
Group, a privately held investment firm with an opportunistic
hybrid investment approach.

Deconsolidated Approach: The main credit metric is holdco-only FFO
leverage, which we calculate as the recourse debt (excluding
project finance debt at subsidiaries) divided by holdco-only FFO
before interest paid (distributions from subsidiaries, including
project level refinancing - excluding proceeds from sell downs of
minority stakes in projects, and one-off transactions - less holdco
operating expenses and taxes).

DERIVATION SUMMARY

Fitch rates ContourGlobal using a deconsolidated approach as the
company's operating assets are largely financed with non-recourse
project debt. ContourGlobal's operating scale is comparable with
that of TerraForm Power Operating, LLC (TERPO; BB-/Stable), NextEra
Energy Partners, LP (NEP; BB+/Stable) and Atlantica Sustainable
Infrastructure Plc (Atlantica; BB+/Stable).

Fitch views TERPO's and NEP's US-dominated portfolio of renewable
assets as superior to that of ContourGlobal, which is 37%
renewables with the remaining generation mainly thermal and carries
re-contracting risk and political and regulatory risks in emerging
markets. Fitch also views Atlantica's portfolio of assets as
superior to that of ContourGlobal, given Atlantica's focus on
renewables, longer remaining contracted life (17 years versus 9
years) and better geographical split (largely North America and
Europe). This is mitigated by the larger size of ContourGlobal's
portfolio.

KEY ASSUMPTIONS

Fitch's Key Assumptions Within Its Rating Case for the Issuer:

-- Equity investments of about USD350 million in 2022-2024,
    largely for new assets (holdco's share in acquisition
    funding);

-- USD110 million proceeds from sale of Brazil Hydro in 2022;

-- Continued solid project level refinancing activity in 2022-
    2023, but for lower amounts than in a record 2021;

-- Holdco dividends rising 10% a year in 2022-2024 in line with
    the management's dividend policy.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to positive
rating action/upgrade:

-- Holdco-only FFO leverage below 3.5x on a sustained basis and
    FFO interest coverage higher than 5x;

-- Materially reduced counterparty concentration risks so that
    EBITDA from any single off-taker is consistently less than
    15%.

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to negative
rating action/downgrade:

-- Holdco-only FFO leverage above 4.5x on a sustained basis and
    FFO interest coverage lower than 3x, for example due to
    opportunistic recourse debt financing;

-- Major PPAs experiencing unexpected and material price
    reduction or termination;

-- More than 40% of total revenue becoming uncontracted

-- A change in strategy to invest in more speculative, non-
    contracted assets or a material decline in cash flow from
    contracted power-generation assets;

-- Future projects experiencing material cost overruns and
    delays, not being prudently financed or encountering
    substantial political interference, causing financial distress

    at the project level or parent level so that ContourGlobal
    breaches our rating sensitivities on a sustained basis;

-- A material increase in the super senior revolving credit
    facility and equally ranking letters of credit facilities
    could be negative for the senior secured rating.

BEST/WORST CASE RATING SCENARIO

International scale credit ratings of Non-Financial Corporate
issuers have a best-case rating upgrade scenario (defined as the
99th percentile of rating transitions, measured in a positive
direction) of three notches over a three-year rating horizon; and a
worst-case rating downgrade scenario (defined as the 99th
percentile of rating transitions, measured in a negative direction)
of four notches over three years. The complete span of best- and
worst-case scenario credit ratings for all rating categories ranges
from 'AAA' to 'D'. Best- and worst-case scenario credit ratings are
based on historical performance.

LIQUIDITY AND DEBT STRUCTURE

Sufficient Liquidity: ContourGlobal has sufficient liquidity at the
holdco level with no long-term debt refinancing until 2025, when
EUR400 million bonds are due. Project-finance debt maturities at
operating subsidiaries, comprising the vast majority of
consolidated debt, are evenly balanced due to debt amortisation,
with no substantial refinancing risk in 2022-2023.

Holdco level cash was USD49 million at end-December 2021 together
with EUR80 million available under an undrawn RCF expiring in
December 2023. At this date, holdco had an outstanding USD40
million bridge loan and EUR40 million drawn under the RCF.
ContourGlobal has sufficient liquidity at the holdco level to fund
its planned equity investments until at least 2023 (net of proceeds
from the Brazil hydro business disposal and planned refinancing at
asset level), based on our projections.

ISSUER PROFILE

ContourGlobal is a holding company that operates 6.3GW of gross
generation capacity with about 138 thermal and renewable power
generation assets across 20 countries, through its subsidiaries and
affiliates. ContourGlobal cash flows in project companies are
supported by long-term contracts, regulated capacity or regulated
cost-of service payments.

ESG CONSIDERATIONS

Unless otherwise disclosed in this section, the highest level of
ESG credit relevance is a score of '3'. This means ESG issues are
credit-neutral or have only a minimal credit impact on the entity,
either due to their nature or the way in which they are being
managed by the entity.

   DEBT                    RATING            RECOVERY PRIOR
   ----                    ------            -------- -----
ContourGlobal plc    
ContourGlobal Power
Holdings S.A.
                    LT IDR   BB-    Affirmed            BB-

senior secured     LT       BB+    Affirmed    RR2     BB+

super senior       LT       BB+    Affirmed    RR2     BB+

DAWNFRESH SEAFOODS: Administrators Reveal Interim Fees, Expenses
----------------------------------------------------------------
Scott Wright at The Herald reports that administrators for
Dawnfresh Seafoods have revealed their interim fees and expenses
for their recovery work on the failed Scottish business.

Two hundred jobs were lost when Dawnfresh Seafoods went into
administration in March, which was followed by the immediate
closure of the company's loss-making fish processing plant in
Uddingston, The Herald recounts.

According to The Herald, Tom MacLennan, Callum Carmichael and
Michelle Elliot of FRP Advisory were appointed administrators of
holding company Dawnfresh Holdings and subsidiaries Dawnfresh
Seafoods and RR Spink & Sons (Arbroath) after the business was
unable to mitigate rising costs, overcapacity at the Uddingston
site and unsustainable cash flow problems -- despite investment to
upgrade the plant and systems, improve efficiency and reduce costs.
It followed 17 consecutive years of losses at the parent group,
The Herald notes.

A filing newly lodged at Companies House shows the administrators
are authorised to draw an interim fee of GBP739,078.25 plus
value-added tax, representing the time costs incurred by them and
their staff for the period between February 28 and April 8, The
Herald discloses.  The administrators' remuneration is drawn from
the company's assets, The Herald states.

Administrators have been focused on realising the assets of
Dawnfresh Seafoods, having noted in a report in April that there
was no funds available to allow it to continue to trade, The Herald
relates.  The level of unsecured liabilities meant they did not
anticipate finding a buyer, The Herald notes.

As announced when the company went into administration, RR Spink &
Sons was sold by the administrators to Buckie-based Associated
Seafoods in a deal that saw all 249 staff transfer to the new
owner, The Herald relays.  A further subsidiary business Dawnfresh
Farming has continued to trade solvently while being marketed for
sale, according to The Herald.


FCE BANK: Fitch Affirms 'B/BB+' Issuer Default Ratings
------------------------------------------------------
Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings
(IDRs) of Ford Motor Company (Ford), Ford Motor Credit Company LLC
(Ford Credit) and Ford Credit's subsidiaries at 'BB+'. Fitch has
also affirmed the senior unsecured debt ratings of Ford at
'BB+'/'RR4' and Ford Credit at 'BB+'.

Fitch has assigned a Shareholder Support Rating (SSR) of 'bb+' to
Ford Credit and its subsidiaries, in line with Fitch's updated
"Non-Bank Financial Institutions Rating Criteria" dated Jan. 31,
2022.

The Rating Outlooks for Ford and Ford Credit have been revised to
Positive from Stable.

The revision of Ford's Rating Outlook to Positive reflects expected
improvements in the company's profitability and core FCF that are
likely lead to margins and credit protection metrics that are in
line with its positive rating sensitivities over the intermediate
term. Although supply chain and inflationary pressures are likely
to continue for much of 2022, Fitch expects Ford's profitability to
improve as it benefits from ongoing redesign activities, as well as
execution on its Ford+ plan.

Fitch expects FCF to be supported by positive working capital under
more normalized operating conditions, although distributions from
Ford Credit will likely be lower.

   DEBT                                 RATING             PRIOR
   ----                                 ------             -----
FCE Bank Plc          
                      LT IDR              BB+  Affirmed      BB+
                      ST IDR              B    Affirmed      B     
                
                      Shareholder Support bb+  New Rating
senior unsecured     LT                  BB+  Affirmed      BB+
senior unsecured     ST                  B    Affirmed      B
short-term deposits  ST                  B    Affirmed      B

Ford Motor Credit         
Co. of Puerto
Rico, Inc.           
                     ST IDR               B    Affirmed      B
                     Shareholder Support  bb+  New Rating

Ford Credit de Mexico,    
S.A. de C.V.,
Sociedad Financiera
de Objeto Multiple,
Entidad Regulada
                    LT IDR               BB+   Affirmed      BB+
                    Shareholder Support  bb+   New Rating

Ford Motor Company                
                    LT IDR               BB+   Affirmed      BB+
senior unsecured   LT                   BB+   Affirmed  RR4 BB+

Ford Motor Credit               
Company LLC
                    LT IDR               BB+   Affirmed      BB+
                    ST IDR               B     Affirmed      B
                    Shareholder Support  bb+   New Rating
senior unsecured   LT                   BB+   Affirmed      BB+
senior unsecured   ST                   B     Affirmed      B

Ford Holdings LLC                     
                    LT IDR               BB+   Affirmed      BB+
                    Shareholder Support  bb+   New Rating
senior unsecured   LT                   BB+   Affirmed      BB+

Ford Credit               
Canada Company
                    LT IDR              BB+    Affirmed      BB+
                    ST IDR              B      Affirmed      B
                    Shareholder Support bb+    New Rating
senior unsecured   LT                  BB+    Affirmed      BB+
senior unsecured   ST                  B      Affirmed      B

Ford Capital B.V.   
                    LT IDR              BB+    Affirmed      BB+
                    Shareholder Support bb+    New Rating

KEY RATING DRIVERS

Rating Concerns: Near-term rating concerns include ongoing
production difficulties stemming from supply-chain related
challenges and the coronavirus pandemic, elevated commodity and
logistics costs, rising interest rates, and the impact of inflation
on consumer confidence. Other concerns include tightening emissions
regulations in various global regions, as well as substantial
investments that the company is making in both electrification and
vehicle autonomy. All of these factors will weigh on profitability
and FCF generation over the next several years.

Despite these headwinds, vehicle demand remains strong, and it has
outpaced supply in the major global regions for the past two years.
Fitch expects Ford will continue to experience a strong pricing
environment, which will help to mitigate some of the inflationary
pressure on the company's margins. That said, Fitch expects the
combination of inflation and technology-related investment spending
to result in some margin dilution over the next several years,
although overall profitability is likely to improve relative to the
period leading up to the pandemic.

Corporate Reorganization: In March 2022, Ford announced that it
would reorganize its automotive business into three separate units,
Ford Blue (Blue) and Ford Model e (Model e), as well as the
existing Ford Pro business focused on commercial customers.
Notably, Blue will comprise the company's traditional internal
combustion engine (ICE) business and will be focused largely on
cost reduction and profit maximization. Model e will focus on the
electric vehicle (EV) business, as well vehicle connectivity and
software.

Ford will treat the two units as separate business segments for
financial reporting purposes, which will bring enhanced
transparency to the profitability of the ICE business and the
investments it is making in emerging technologies.

Ford's decision to focus on a reorganization, rather than a
spin-off, is a credit positive. A spin-off could leave Ford's
legacy business with little long-term value as the auto industry
rapidly moves toward electrification. Keeping the two units within
the same company will allow Ford to use the cash generated from
Blue's ICE business to fund Model e's technology investments. There
are also likely to be operational synergies in keeping the two
businesses together, without the incremental costs that would be
incurred in operating as two separate companies.

Improving FCF: Fitch expects Ford's automotive FCF (based on
Fitch's methodology) to remain under pressure over the next couple
of years as the company continues to work through its global
redesign, with a relatively modest cash outflow expected in 2022 as
the company spends $1.0 billion-$1.5 billion on redesign work.
However, excluding the redesign initiatives, Fitch expects the
company's FCF to be solidly positive over the next several years
with a more benign market backdrop, although the pandemic and
ongoing supply-chain challenges remain near-term concerns.
Increasing EV investments will also weigh on FCF over the next
several years.

Fitch expects Ford's automotive FCF margins, according to Fitch's
calculations and excluding the redesign initiatives, to run near
2.0% over the intermediate term. Actual automotive FCF (based on
Fitch's methodology) in 2021 was $3.1 billion when excluding $1.9
billion in cash costs associated with the redesign, equivalent to a
2.5% FCF margin. However, automotive FCF in 2021 was supported by
$7.5 billion in Ford Credit distributions, which was more than
double the typical level of recent years. Fitch expects those
distributions to run at more normalized levels over the next few
years.

Low Automotive Leverage: Fitch expects Ford's automotive EBITDA
gross leverage (according to Fitch's calculations) to remain low
and generally in-line with pre-pandemic levels over the next
several years. Leverage declined significantly in 2021 due to a
combination of debt reduction and higher EBITDA. In 2021, Ford
reduced automotive debt by $3.9 billion, leaving it with about $20
billion of automotive debt outstanding at YE 2021. The EBITDA
increase was partially due to the increased distributions from Ford
Credit. (Fitch adds affiliate dividends to EBITDA in its
calculation of leverage.)

Looking ahead, Fitch expects EBITDA gross leverage to rise
slightly, toward the upper-1x range by YE 2022, largely due to
lower Ford Credit dividends, as Fitch expects debt to decline a bit
and EBITDA excluding Ford Credit dividends to rise on higher
production levels. Over the longer term. Fitch expects leverage to
decline back toward the low-1x range, largely due to higher levels
of EBITDA.

FORD CREDIT

IDRs AND SENIOR DEBT:

The affirmation of Ford Credit's ratings and the revision of the
Outlook to Positive from Stable are driven by the affirmation and
Ford's Outlook revision. Ford Credit's ratings and Outlook are
linked to those of Ford, as Fitch considers Ford Credit a core
subsidiary of Ford.

This view is supported by the high percentage of Ford vehicle sales
financed by Ford Credit and the strong operational and financial
linkages between the two companies. Ford Credit also has a support
agreement with Ford, which requires Ford to make capital
contributions to Ford Credit if its leverage ratio (defined as debt
to equity) is higher than 12.5x. Ford Credit's ratings also reflect
its consistent operating performance, peer superior asset quality
historically and adequate liquidity.

Ford Credit's 'BB+' SSR is aligned with Ford's IDR and indicates
the minimum level to which Ford Credit's IDR could fall if Fitch
does not change its view on potential support from Ford. A 'BB+'
SSR indicates a moderate probability of external support.

Ford Credit's asset quality performance was strong in 2021 as
delinquencies and charge-off rates improved materially yoy. The
portfolio continued to benefit from unprecedented government
support programs to consumers, higher used vehicle prices,
resulting in elevated gains on lease terminations, and higher
recoveries on defaulted loans. Ford Credit's net charge-off rate on
its worldwide portfolio declined to 0.07% in 2021, down from 0.27%
in 2020. Fitch expects delinquencies and credit losses to trend
higher in the near term as deferral programs granted to customers
have expired and the macro backdrop has become more challenging.

Ford Credit's pre-tax earnings increased 81% in 2021 primarily due
to a decrease in loan loss provision expense based on lower reserve
needs given the economic recovery coming out of the pandemic and
lower credit losses. Additionally, the company's interest expense
declined during 2021 as a result of lower debt balances and a lower
cost of funding. Fitch believes that the strong profitability
experienced in 2021 is not sustainable and that earnings will
normalize as credit metrics return to historical levels. While used
vehicle prices should remain a strength in the near-term, the more
challenging macro backdrop is expected to be a headwind for
consumers.

Fitch believes Ford Credit had sufficient liquidity at YE 2021 to
address total debt maturities over the next 12 months of
approximately $46.5 billion (both secured and unsecured debt).
Available liquidity of $32 billion at Dec. 31, 2021, which included
cash and available capacity on credit facilities, is further
augmented by cash flow collections on underlying loans and lease
receivables and expectations for continued market issuance.

Ford Credit's funding diversification has steadily improved in
recent years, in Fitch's view, with a greater mix of unsecured
debt. Unsecured debt as a percentage of total debt increased to 61%
at YE 2021, up from 59% at YE 2020. Fitch views Ford Credit's
utilization of unsecured funding favorably as it provides enhanced
flexibility in times of stress, as a larger pool of unencumbered
assets could be pledged to secured facilities to generate
liquidity.

While Ford Credit's leverage, as measured by debt to tangible
equity, of 9.5x at YE 2021, was higher than other captives and
stand-alone finance & leasing companies, Fitch believes it is
mitigated by the higher quality loan/lease portfolio, which has
shown superior credit performance.

Ford Credit's unsecured debt ratings are equalized with the
Long-Term IDR and reflect the proportion of unsecured debt in the
capital structure and the expectation for average recovery
prospects under a stress scenario.

The affirmation of Ford Credit's Short-Term IDR at 'B' reflects the
rating linkage between the Short-Term IDR and the Long-Term IDR.

Ford Credit's commercial paper (CP) rating remains equalized with
the company's Short-Term IDR.

DERIVATION SUMMARY

Ford's business profile is similar to other large global volume
auto manufacturers. From an automotive revenue perspective, it is
larger than General Motors Company (GM) but smaller than Stellantis
N.V. (Stellantis). Compared with GM, Ford's operations are more
globally diversified, with significant operations in most major
auto markets. However, from a brand perspective, Ford is less
diversified than Volkswagen AG (VW), Stellantis or GM, focusing
primarily on its global Ford brand and, to a much lesser extent,
its Lincoln luxury brand, which is only available in North America
and China.

However, the company sells a wide range of vehicles under the Ford
brand globally, ranging from small economy passenger cars to heavy
trucks in certain markets. Ford has a particularly strong market
share in the highly profitable North American pickup and European
light commercial vehicle segments.

For the past several years, Ford's credit profile has been weaker
than that of many of its global mass-market peers in the 'BBB'
category, such as GM, Stellantis and VW. Ford's EBIT and FCF
margins have been lower and gross leverage has been a little higher
than these other global auto manufacturers. Partially offsetting
the credit profile effect of lower FCF and higher leverage, Ford
has one of the global auto industry's strongest liquidity
positions, providing it with significant financial flexibility.

KEY ASSUMPTIONS

Fitch's Key Assumptions Within Its Rating Case for the Issuer:

-- Global industry light vehicle production rises by 5% in 2022,
including an 8% increase in U.S., with continued effects from the
global supply chain challenges. Beyond 2022, global industry
production rises back toward pre-pandemic levels.

-- Capex runs near 4%-5% of revenue over the next several years,
with capex in 2022 running at the higher end of the range.

-- Working capital is a source of cash in 2022 on increased
wholesale volumes and a more normalized production environment in
the latter half of the year. Working capital continues to be a
source of cash in later years on higher production levels.

-- The post-dividend FCF margin excluding redesign cash expenses
runs at about 1% in 2022, then increases toward 2% in later years.

-- The company maintains automotive cash above $20 billion over
the forecast horizon, with total liquidity, including credit
facility capacity, above $30 billion.

-- Ford Credit continues to distribute dividends to Ford, although
at a lower level than seen in 2021, and this is included in Fitch's
FCF calculations.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to a
positive rating action/upgrade:

-- Fitch does not expect Ford's ratings to be considered for an
upgrade until the global auto production environment has
stabilized;

-- Sustained North American automotive EBIT margin of 6.0%;

-- Sustained global automotive EBIT margin near 3.0%;

-- Sustained FCF margin near 1.5%, excluding restructuring costs;

-- Sustained EBITDA leverage (total debt/operating EBITDA) below
2.0x.

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to a
negative rating action/downgrade:

-- An extended decline in automotive cash below $15 billion;

-- Sustained breakeven global automotive EBIT margin;

-- Sustained negative FCF, excluding restructuring costs;

-- Sustained EBITDA leverage above 3.0x.

FORD CREDIT

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to positive
rating action/upgrade are largely dependent on Ford's ratings and
Outlook, given the rating linkage. Ford Credit's ratings are
expected to move in tandem with its parent, although any change in
Fitch's view on whether Ford Credit remains core to its parent,
based on an assessment of its size, ownership, and strategic
alignment with Ford, could change this rating linkage. Fitch does
not envision a scenario where Ford Credit would be rated higher
than the parent.

Factors that could, individually or collectively, lead to negative
rating action/downgrade are largely dependent on Ford's ratings and
Outlook, given the rating linkage. However, a material increase in
leverage, an inability to access funding for an extended period,
consistent and sustained operating losses, significant
deterioration in the credit quality of the underlying loan and
lease portfolio, and/or material impairment of the liquidity
profile could become constraining factors on the parent and
subsidiary ratings.

The unsecured debt rating is primarily sensitive to changes in the
Long-Term IDR and is expected to move in tandem. However, a
material increase in the proportion of secured funding could result
in the unsecured debt rating being notched down from the IDR.

The Short-Term IDR is primarily sensitive to changes in the
Long-Term IDR and, by extension, to Fitch's view of institutional
support, and also Fitch's view of the funding and liquidity
profiles of Ford Credit and Ford.

The CP rating is sensitive to changes in Ford Credit's Short-Term
IDR and, therefore, would be expected to move in tandem.

The SSR is primarily sensitive to changes in Ford Credit's IDR, and
secondarily, to changes in Fitch's assessment of the probability of
support being extended to Ford Credit from Ford.

LIQUIDITY AND DEBT STRUCTURE

Strong Liquidity Position: Ford had about $29 billion in automotive
cash and marketable securities as of March 31, 2022 (excluding
Fitch's adjustments for not readily available cash). Marketable
securities included $5.1 billion of stock in Rivian Automotive,
Inc. In addition to its cash and marketable securities, as of March
31, 2022, Ford also had nearly full availability on its $13.5
billion primary revolver (after accounting for $25 million in LOCs)
and full availability on its $2.0 billion supplemental revolver.

Ford also had a total of about $450 million available on various
local credit facilities around the world. About $3.4 billion of the
primary revolver commitments mature in 2024 and $10.1 billion
matures in 2026. The supplemental revolver matures in 2024.

As part of its captive finance adjustment, Fitch's Non-Bank
Financial Institutions team has calculated an allowable
debt-to-equity ratio of 4.0x for Ford Credit. This is lower than
the actual ratio of 9.5x, as calculated by Fitch at YE 2021. As a
result of its analysis, Fitch has assumed that Ford makes a
theoretical $13.6 billion equity injection into Ford Credit, funded
with balance sheet cash, to bring Ford Credit's debt-to-equity
ratio down to 4.0x. Fitch has included the adjustment in its
calculation of Ford's not readily available cash. The resulting
adjustment reduces Fitch's calculation of Ford's readily available
automotive cash, but the company's metrics remain supportive of its
'BB+' IDR and Positive Outlook.

In addition to the captive-finance adjustment, according to its
criteria, Fitch has treated an additional $3.2 billion of Ford's
automotive cash as "not readily available" for purposes of
calculating net metrics. This is based on Fitch's estimate of the
amount of cash needed to cover typical seasonality in Ford's
automotive business. However, even after excluding the amounts
noted above from its liquidity calculations, Fitch views Ford's
automotive liquidity position as strong.

Debt Structure: As of March 31, 2022, Ford's automotive debt
structure consisted primarily of about $16 billion of senior
unsecured notes, $1.5 billion of delayed draw term loan borrowings
and $806 million of remaining borrowings outstanding under the U.S.
Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing
incentive program, along with various other long- and short-term
borrowings.

ISSUER PROFILE

Ford is a global automotive manufacturer that builds and sells
light vehicles primarily under the Ford and Lincoln brands, as well
as Ford-brand commercial vehicles. Ford also offers financial
services to dealers and customers through Ford Motor Credit Company
LLC.

ESG CONSIDERATIONS

Ford previously had an ESG Relevance Score of '4' for Management
Strategy due to the complexity and costs of the company's global
redesign strategy, which had a negative impact on the credit
profile, and was relevant to the ratings in conjunction with other
factors.

Given the positive financial results seen from the global redesign
strategy over the past several years and the company's ability to
manage the costs of the program, Fitch has revised the ESG
Relevance Score for Management Strategy to '3' from '4'.

Unless otherwise disclosed in this section, the highest level of
ESG credit relevance is a score of '3'. This means ESG issues are
credit-neutral or have only a minimal credit impact on the entity,
either due to their nature or the way in which they are being
managed by the entity.


HOUSE BY URBAN SPLASH: Former Workers Mull Legal Action
-------------------------------------------------------
Grant Prior at Construction Enquirer reports that staff hit by the
collapse of Manchester based modular business House by Urban Splash
have begun the process of taking legal action following claims that
it failed to properly consult staff before making them redundant.

The offsite specialist went into administration with 160 staff made
redundant at its Derbyshire factory and sites across the country,
Construction Enquirer relates.

According to Construction Enquirer, law firm Simpson Millar said it
has already been contacted by former workers who claim they were
not consulted over the job losses.

Its specialist employment team has now begun investigations into
whether a Protective Award can be secured for those affected,
Construction Enquirer discloses.

"We have since spoken to a number of people who have been directly
affected as a result of job losses at the company's Derbyshire
factory, and we are in the early stages of investigating whether
more should have done to consult with staff," Construction Enquirer
quotes Anita North, an employment law expert at Simpson
Millar, as saying.

"Regardless of whether a company is struggling financially, it does
have a duty under current employment law legislation to carry out a
proper consultation with staff at risk of redundancy.

"Where that does not happen, employees can bring a claim for a
Protective Award."


MORTIMER BTL 2022-1: S&P Assigns B-(sf) Rating on Cl. X-Dfrd Notes
------------------------------------------------------------------
S&P Global Ratings assigned credit ratings to Mortimer BTL 2022-1
PLC's (Mortimer 2022-1) class A notes and B-Dfrd to X-Dfrd interest
deferrable notes.

Mortimer 2022-1 is a static RMBS transaction that securitizes a
portfolio of BTL mortgage loans secured on properties in the U.K.
LendInvest originated the loans in the pool between June 2020 and
March 2022.

At closing, the issuer used the issuance proceeds to purchase the
full beneficial interest in the mortgage loans from the seller. The
issuer granted security over all of its assets in the security
trustee's favor.

Credit enhancement for the rated notes consists of subordination
from the closing date and overcollateralization following the
step-up date, which will result from the release of the excess
amount from the liquidity reserve fund to the principal priority of
payments.

The transaction features a liquidity reserve fund to provide
liquidity in the transaction.

There are no rating constraints in the transaction under our
counterparty, operational risk, or structured finance sovereign
risk criteria. S&P considers the issuer to be bankruptcy remote.

  Ratings List

  CLASS     RATING*     AMOUNT (MIL. GBP)

  A         AAA (sf)      234.90

  B-Dfrd    AA (sf)        16.20

  C-Dfrd    A (sf)          9.45

  D-Dfrd    BBB (sf)        4.05

  E-Dfrd    BB (sf)         5.40

  X-Dfrd    B- (sf)         4.73

  Certificates  NR           N/A

  *NR--Not rated.
   N/A--Not applicable.


NMC HEALTH: Administrators Sue EY Over Audit Failings
-----------------------------------------------------
Michael O'Dwyer at The Financial Times reports that EY failed to
flag a multibillion dollar fraud at FTSE 100 group NMC Health in
the years before its 2020 collapse because the auditor did not
properly carry out basic checks, according to a US$2.7 billion
legal claim by the hospital operator's administrators.

Abu Dhabi-based NMC was placed into administration in April 2020
after discovering that more than US$4 billion of debt was hidden
from its balance sheet in one of the biggest alleged frauds at a
London-listed company, the FT recounts.

NMC's post-tax profits were misstated by US$317 million between
2012 and 2018 while its debts were misstated by nearly US$3.9
billion, according to a copy of the legal claim seen by the FT.
NMC, the United Arab Emirates' largest private hospital group,
reached a market valuation at its peak of US$10.9 billion.

The lawsuit alleges a litany of shortcomings by EY, including a
failure to spot that NMC's accounts had been fraudulently
misstated, that its client did not keep adequate accounting records
and that it had inadequate controls to prevent or detect fraud, the
FT discloses.

It should have been clear to EY that "there were material
uncertainties that cast significant doubt" on NMC Group's ability
to continue as a going concern from at least 2014, it is claimed,
the FT notes.

The claim filed in London's High Court is the latest in a series of
high-profile lawsuits against EY, which gave unqualified audit
opinions over NMC's accounts from its flotation in 2012 until its
final set of figures signed in 2019.

EY's UK business said it would "vigorously" defend the legal
action, according to the FT.

The High Court allegations include a claim that the Big Four
auditor failed to verify NMC's bank and debt balances, the FT
discloses.

The lawsuit alleges that EY failed to obtain cash or debt balances
from several of NMC's banks, the FT states.  It is also claimed
that auditors allowed NMC to contact banks directly to get
confirmation of its debt balances and that some of these
confirmations had been "manipulated", the FT notes.

According to the FT, administrators from Alvarez & Marsal also
allege that EY should have detected that NMC's revenues were
fraudulently inflated in its accounts and that the hospital
operator's management had dishonestly caused NMC to incur large
hidden debts and enter into guarantees over both hidden and
reported debts.

EY's alleged negligence also includes failure to notice that
companies in the NMC group had entered into a large number of
"unreported and improper transactions with related parties for the
purpose of enriching senior management, financed in part by the
group's hidden borrowing", the FT discloses.

According to the claim, EY should have identified a series of
factors indicating a risk of fraud, including the roughly 60 per
cent stake held by founder BR Shetty and two other large
shareholders, and the risk that NMC management "would draw no clear
distinction between the interests of NMC  .  .  .  and
their other business or personal interests", the FT relays.

The lawsuit also argues that EY's UK arm should be held responsible
for failures by the firm's franchise in the Middle East because the
UK entity signed off the group's accounts and should therefore have
been sufficiently involved to lead and control the audit, the FT
says.

The claim seeks damages to cover US$2.5 billion in guarantees given
by NMC on undisclosed borrowing, US$169 million in dividends paid
since 2012 in reliance on the accounts, US$23 million in bonuses
paid to NMC's senior managers, US$45 million in advisory fees and
an undisclosed sum for the value of four subsidiaries, which was
wiped out, the FT discloses.


PHONES 4U: Collusion by Mobile Cos Prompted Collapse, Suit Claims
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Jane Croft at The Financial Times reports that the UK's biggest
mobile network operators breached antitrust law and unlawfully
"colluded" with each other to participate in the "destruction" of
retailer Phones 4U, which went into administration in 2014, it was
claimed in the High Court.

According to the FT, the administrators of Phones 4U (P4U) have
brought a High Court lawsuit against five mobile network operators
-- EE, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone and Telefonica -- which
started on May 16.

P4U alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy in which executives at
different companies colluded to put it out of business, the FT
discloses.  It claims that decisions by all the mobile operators to
pull out of supplying the chain in September 2014 were the result
of unlawful co-ordination between them rather than independent
decision-making, the FT states.

The mobile operators strongly deny the allegations and are
defending the case, the FT notes.

Kenneth MacLean QC, representing P4U, claimed on May 16 that all
the mobile network operators (MNOs) had a "massive incentive" to
reduce volumes of business done through P4U because of low profit
margins in the UK market, the FT relates.

"But they could not achieve these goals unilaterally.  It would
only happen if the MNOs co-operated. And that was unlawful," he
said in his written arguments, adding that "senior executives
appear to have been relaxed about contemplating or participating in
breaches of competition law".

Mr. MacLean claimed that there was a "culture of collusion" and
"conversations between senior executives took place safe in the
knowledge they would not be reported to the authorities," he said.

"Unsurprisingly, in an industry riddled with inappropriate and
unlawful behaviour, there were multiple contacts at different times
between MNO personnel at different levels," Mr. MacLean, as cited
by the FT, said and claimed that the defendants had made
"significant efforts to obscure, have failed to preserve, or have
destroyed, relevant material".

The trial, which is due to last for three months, continues, the FT
discloses.


VTB CAPITAL: Guernsey Operations Put Into Administration
--------------------------------------------------------
Benjamin Robertson at Bloomberg News reports that the Guernsey
operations of VTB Capital have been put into administration by the
local regulator after the firm's parent was sanctioned following
Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

VTB Bank PJSC was among Russian financial services companies to be
sanctioned by the U.K. and the European Union effectively cutting
it off from the global financial system, Bloomberg discloses.

According to Bloomberg, VTB's U.K. arm, VTB Capital, is seeking
administration protection in the English courts in order to
safeguard creditors.

Guernsey Financial Services Commission said in a May 6 statement
that it has won court approval to place VTB Capital's local arm
into administration using its regulatory powers, Bloomberg
relates.


WE ARE NOVA: Faces Investigation Over Collapsed Subsidiaries
------------------------------------------------------------
James Hurley at The Times reports that a start-up investment group
backed by Sir Terry Leahy that secured close to GBP11 million in
emergency pandemic loans is being scrutinised over a series of
insolvencies set to cost taxpayers about GBP2 million.

We Are Nova, which is under investigation by the government's
Insolvency Service over alleged misuse of the bounce back loan
scheme, is the subject of separate inquiries over subsidiaries that
collapsed before the pandemic, The Times discloses.

According to The Times, a liquidator investigating the group on
behalf of HMRC and other creditors said in new filings that there
had been an "investigation focused on the use of crown funds to
facilitate the ongoing trade" of the group.  



                           *********


S U B S C R I P T I O N   I N F O R M A T I O N

Troubled Company Reporter-Europe is a daily newsletter co-
published by Bankruptcy Creditors' Service, Inc., Fairless Hills,
Pennsylvania, USA, and Beard Group, Inc., Washington, D.C., USA.
Marites O. Claro, Rousel Elaine T. Fernandez, Joy A. Agravante,
Julie Anne L. Toledo, Ivy B. Magdadaro, and Peter A. Chapman,
Editors.

Copyright 2022.  All rights reserved.  ISSN 1529-2754.

This material is copyrighted and any commercial use, resale or
publication in any form (including e-mail forwarding, electronic
re-mailing and photocopying) is strictly prohibited without prior
written permission of the publishers.

Information contained herein is obtained from sources believed to
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delivered via e-mail.  Additional e-mail subscriptions for
members of the same firm for the term of the initial subscription
or balance thereof are US$25 each.  For subscription information,
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                * * * End of Transmission * * *