Moody’s: Navios South American to negative

Moody's Investors Service said it changed the outlook on the B2 corporate family rating of Navios South American Logistics Inc. (NSAL) and the B2 rating assigned to its $375 million guaranteed senior unsecured notes to negative from stable.

The agency also affirmed these ratings.

"Changing our outlook on NSAL to negative reflects the potential contagion risk from the challenges faced by its parent company, Navios Holdings, whose financial and liquidity profiles have been affected by weak dry bulk shipping rates," Marie Fischer-Sabatie, Moody's lead analyst for Navios South American, said in a news release.

S&P lowers MasTec to negative

Standard & Poor's said it revised the outlook on MasTec Inc. to negative from stable and affirmed its BB corporate credit rating on the company.

The agency also said it affirmed the BB- rating on the company's $400 million senior unsecured notes due 2023.

The outlook revision reflects that a chance that the agency could lower the company’s corporate credit during the next year if its adjusted debt-to-EBITDA metric remains at more than 3.5x for an extended period, S&P said.

MasTec sustained weaker-than-expected credit measures in 2015 due to weak market conditions and execution issues, the agency said.

The company's performance is expected to improve in 2016, but S&P said it recognizes uncertain trends in some of its end markets.

S&P lowers Pacific Exploration

Standard & Poor’s said it lowered the long-term corporate credit and issue-level ratings on Pacific Exploration and Production Corp. to D from CC.

The downgrade reflects Pacific’s failure to make the $31.3 million interest payment Jan. 19 on its 5 5/8% notes. A payment default hasn’t occurred according to the legal provisions of the notes because of the 30-day grace period, S&P said.

But, the agency said it considers a default to have occurred because it does not believe the payment will be made within the stated grace period given news that Pacific has elected to also use the 30-day grace period on an interest payment due Jan. 26.

S&P lowers SFX Entertainment

Standard & Poor’s said it lowered the corporate credit rating on SFX Entertainment Inc. to CC from CCC.

The outlook is negative.

The agency also said it lowered the rating on the company’s senior secured second-lien loan to CC from CCC. The 4 recovery rating is unchanged, indicating 30% to 50% expected default recovery.

The downgrades follow recent disclosure by the company of covenant breaches identified as events of default under its credit agreement, S&P said.

As a result, the company may face cross-default risk on its credit agreement if it fails to remedy those covenant defaults before the forbearance period expires Jan. 28, the agency said.

The forbearance agreement also disclosed that SFX has appointed a chief restructuring officer and the company may consider bankruptcy to facilitate the reorganization, S&P added.

The company’s liquidity and cash flow metrics will continue to significantly deteriorate and the agency said it expects a payment default to be a virtual certainty, regardless of the time to default.

A restructuring or bankruptcy could occur within the next six months, S&P said, and there is a high likelihood that SFX would miss the $15 million senior secured coupon payment due in February 2016 because of the liquidity crisis it is facing.

Moody’s affirms Eksportfinans

Moody's Investor Service said it affirmed Eksportfinans ASA's Ba3 issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings and and Not-Prime short-term ratings.

The outlook on all long-term ratings remains stable.

Moody’s said the affirmation reflects: (a) The sound credit quality of Eksportfinans' loan book that benefits from guarantees by the Norwegian government via export credit agency GIEK and/or highly rated banks; (b) its good capitalization (Tier 1 ratio 30.3% at end-September 2015), which is likely to further improve as the balance sheet continues to deleverage; and (c) improving clarity on liquidity needs taking into account the diminished risk of debt repayment acceleration, following the March 2014 ruling in favor of Eksportfinans by the Tokyo District Court in the claim relating to the company's Samurai bonds.

Moody’s drops Wynn, subsidiaries

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded Wynn Resorts, Ltd.’s corporate family rating to Ba2 from Ba1 and probability of default rating to Ba2-PD from Ba1-PD.

The agency also lowered Wynn Las Vegas, LLC’s $1.8 billion senior notes due 2025 to Ba3 (LGD5) from Ba2 (LGD5), Wynn Macau Ltd.’s $1.35 billion senior notes due 2021 to Ba3 (LGD5) from Ba2 (LGD5), and Wynn America, LLC’s $375 million revolver due 2019 and $875 million delay-draw term due 2020 to Ba1 (LGD2) from Baa3 (LGD2).

The outlook on all four entities is negative.

Moody’s said the downgrade reflects its view that gaming demand challenges in the Macau, China gaming market – this market accounts for a majority of Wynn's consolidated revenue and EBITDA – will continue and will make it difficult for the company to reduce its consolidated leverage to the level needed to maintain a Ba1 corporate family rating.

Net of excess cash (assumes $500 million of cash is reserved for day-to-day operations), Wynn's consolidated debt/EBITDA was about 6.5 times for the 12-month period ended Sept. 30, 2015.

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