Fitch lowers Scottish and Southern

Fitch Ratings said it downgraded Scottish and Southern Energy plc's senior unsecured debt rating to A+ from AA, long-term issuer default rating to A from AA- and short-term issuer default rating to F1 from F1+.

The ratings were removed from Rating Watch negative, and the outlook is stable.

The agency said the downgrade reflects the company's recent Airtricity acquisition and the likely capex program that will be needed to realize Airtricity's project pipeline. As a result, Scottish and Southern's leverage is expected to increase to over 3 times in 2008 from 2.4 times in 2007.

The ratings reflect Scottish and Southern's continued growth in the area of unregulated power and gas supply, Fitch said. As the company increases in size, it is becoming less regulated and slightly more volatile in nature.

The stable outlook reflects the company's strong operating performance, its track record of converting capex into efficiency improvements and its steadily growing customer base, the agency said.

© 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.