S&P might cut Duke Finance

S&P said it placed its B corporate credit rating on Duke Finance LLC on CreditWatch with negative implications.

At the same time, the agency placed all of the issue-level ratings on the secured debt held by Duke Finance on CreditWatch with negative implications.

S&P said the CreditWatch negative placement follows Duke Finance’s announcement that it is selling its EaglePicher business to affiliates of GTCR LLC, which may weaken its overall business risk profile by reducing its scale and product and geographic diversity.

“The CreditWatch negative placement indicates that we could affirm or lower our ratings on Duke after we complete our review of the transaction and its impact on the company's overall credit quality,” the agency said in a news release.

“Specifically, we will try to ascertain whether the company plans to reduce its debt and, if so, to what extent. We also plan to reassess the company's overall business risk profile following the proposed divesture.”

© 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.