Fitch downgrades Iansa

Fitch Ratings said it downgraded the foreign- and local-currency issuer default ratings of Empresas Iansa SA and $100 million senior unsecured notes due 2012 to BB- from BB+. Ratings were placed on watch negative.

The agency also downgraded the national scale rating of Iansa to BBB-(chl) from A-(chl) and equity rating to Level 3 from Level 2.

The downgrade is supported by the dramatic deterioration Iansa's financial profile over the course of 2008 as significant profitability and cash flow weakness in the company's main business, sugar production, as well as the a substantial increase in debt levels due to the higher-than-expected working capital requirements of the concentrate juice business after the merger with Jucosa SA in February 2008, according to the agency.

For the 12 months ended Sept. 30, Iansa's total debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 15.1x.

© 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.