S&P lowers Boise Cascade

Standard & Poor's said it lowered Boise Cascade LLC's corporate credit rating to B+ from BB-.

The outlook is negative.

"The downgrade reflects our view that the operating environment for building products will be more challenging than we previously expected, with no housing recovery in sight through at least 2009," S&P analyst Pamela Rice said in a statement. "As a result, we believe that [the company] will likely generate very weak earnings and negative cash flow for at least the next several quarters."

Ratings reflect the company's participation in highly cyclical wood products markets, its moderate scale in a highly competitive and fragmented industry, prospects for continued low demand for at least the next year and currently weak credit measures due to cyclically poor earnings and cash flow, the agency said.

Ratings also consider that the company has no debt maturities before 2013 as well as its sizable liquidity, S&P noted.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.