Moody’s: Eastcomtrans to negative

Moody's Investors Service said it changed the outlook on Eastcomtrans LLP, Kazakhstan's largest private freight railcar leasing company, to negative from positive.

Concurrently, the agency affirmed Eastcomtrans’ B3 corporate family rating, B3 senior secured rating, B3-PD probability of default rating and national scale corporate family rating of B3.kz.

Moody’s said the action reflects the potential for further deterioration of Eastcomtrans’ financial metrics and liquidity beyond Moody's current projections as a result of unfavorable market developments and the Kazakhstani tenge devaluation.

This could trigger continuous covenant resetting processes, an increase in debt service, and a further weakening in the credit profile, the agency said.

Moody’s changes ICE view to negative

Moody's Investors Service said it affirmed the Ba1 corporate family rating as well as the senior unsecured ratings of Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and the senior secured ratings of Reventazon Finance Trust.

The outlooks were changed to negative from stable.

This action was prompted by the Feb. 8 announcement that Moody's changed the outlook of the Government of Costa Rica (Ba1) to negative from stable.

Given that ICE is fully owned by the Costa Rican government, it falls under the scope of Moody's rating methodology for government-related issuers. The Costa Rican government guarantees certain loans executed by ICE (around 10% of its outstanding debt) but does not guarantee ICE's debt obligations rated by Moody's (around $1 billion of notes).

However, the agency said it believes that there is a "high" likelihood of government extraordinary support in the case of financial distress for several reasons including reputational given the company's status as a major government-owned entity and its strategic importance to the country's economy overall.

Furthermore, Moody’s views that the government of Costa Rica and ICE are exposed to common risk factors as capture by the "high" default dependence assigned to ICE.

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