Credit rating

Liberty Financial Limited has a New Zealand dollar long term issuer rating of BB+ (Outlook Stable).

The rating, which is a statement of the creditworthiness of the company, has been provided by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) which is an internationally recognised rating agency approved by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to provide credit ratings for non-bank deposit takers. The rating is one which reflect's Liberty Financial Limited’s creditworthiness over a time period of one year or more. The rating also assesses Liberty Financial Limited’s capacity to repay in New Zealand dollars.

A BB+ rating is considered one of the highest speculative grade ratings by market participants and is less vulnerable to non-payment than other speculative issues. However, an institution rated BB faces major ongoing uncertainties or exposure to adverse business, financial, or economic conditions which could lead to inadequate capacity to meet its financial commitments. The rating scale used by S&P is shown below.

AAA	AA	A	BBB	BB	B	CCC	CC	D
Extremely Strong	Very Strong	Strong	Adequate	Less Vulnerable	More Vulnerable	Currently Vulnerable	Currently Highly Vulnerable	Default
Capacity to make timely payments				Vulnerable to non-payment

A S&P rating may also include an “outlook assessment”. An outlook assessment considers the potential direction of a long-term credit rating over the intermediate term (typically six months to two years). An outlook assessment is not necessarily a precursor of a rating change. The common rating outlook definitions are: Positive – means that a rating may be raised; Negative – means that a rating may be lowered; Stable – means that a rating is not likely to change; and Developing – means a rating may be raised or lowered.

Credit ratings are statements of opinion issued by a ratings agency. They are not statements of fact, an endorsement of the rated entity, or a recommendation to buy, hold, or sell securities.

For further information visit the website of S&P at www.standardandpoors.com.