Moody's drops Empresa Nacional del Petróleo

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded the foreign currency ratings of Empresa Nacional del Petróleo's to A3 from A2, adding that the ratings downgrade reflects the company's weakened financial profile on a standalone basis.

The outlook is stable.

The agency said that the downgrade is a result of the lowering of Empresa Nacional del Petróleo's underlying baseline credit assessment.

Moody's said it lowered the company's underlying baseline credit assessment to the range of 11-13 from the range of 8-10 (on a scale of 1 to 21, where Aa assessments are published as a range from 2 to 4, single-A assessments map from five to 7, Baa assessments map from 8 to 10, Ba assessments map from 11-13, and so forth).

The agency noted that the change in Empresa Nacional del Petróleo's baseline credit assessment reflects: (1) Weak profitability levels and high financial leverage relative to its peers and (2) Moody's expectation that near to medium term efforts to improve the company's profitability levels and reduce financial leverage will not likely be sufficient to maintain the 8-10 baseline credit assessment.

© 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.