S&P upgrades Turkcell

Standard & Poor's upgraded Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS including raising Cellco Finance NV's $300 million 15% senior subordinated notes due 2005 to CCC+ from CCC and $400 million 12.75% notes due 2005 to B from B-.

S&P said the upgrade follows its recent upgrade of Turkey to B from B- as well as Turkcell's announcement of sound second-quarter 2003 results, demonstrating the company's continued cash generation and strengthening liquidity.

The ratings on Turkcell reflect the company's high exposure to foreign currency-denominated debt and to the macroeconomic environment in Turkey, S&P added .These weaknesses are mitigated by Turkcell's good business position, sound operating performance and fair liquidity.

S&P said it believes Turkcell is well placed to maintain its leading market position and sustain cash generation and debt reduction.

S&P cuts High Voltage Engineering

Standard & Poor's downgraded High Voltage Engineering Corp. including cutting its $155 million 10.5% senior notes due 2004 to D from CCC.

S&P said the downgrade follows the company's failure to make $8 million in interest payments that were due Aug. 15,

S&P said it does not expect the interest payment will be made within the 30-day grace period.

High Voltage currently is negotiating with bondholders to restructure these notes and if a deal is reached S&P expects bondholders to be impaired.

S&P upgrades Omega Healthcare

Standard & Poor's upgraded Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. including raising its $100 million 6.95% senior unsecured notes due 2007 to B- from CCC+ and $50 million 8.625 cumulative preferred stock series B and $57.5 million 9.25% cumulative preferred stock series A to CCC+ from D.

S&P noted Omega paid all deferred dividends on Aug. 15 on the preferred stock.

The upgrade acknowledges the company's successful portfolio and balance sheet restructuring efforts and the recent closing of a new bank facility, which has lengthened debt maturities and modestly improved liquidity, S&P said.

The combination of these two accomplishments has effectively enabled the reinstatement of the payment of preferred dividends and catch-up on all preferred dividends in arrears.

The company has worked through several tenant bankruptcies and lease/mortgage negotiations while successfully meeting its maturing debt obligations. Further, Omega's operating cash flow continues to improve to the point that the common dividend may be reinstated later this year, S&P noted. Further ratings improvement will be driven by sustained improvement in facility-level performance by replacement operators, which would strengthen the stability of Omega's rental stream and recently improved debt protection measures.

S&P cuts Haynes

Standard & Poor's downgraded Haynes International Inc. including cutting its $140 million 11.625% senior unsecured notes due 2004 to CCC- from CCC+. The outlook is negative.

S&P said the senior unsecured debt rating was lowered to one notch below the corporate credit rating, reflecting its disadvantaged position in the capital structure relative to the company's priority obligations.

The downgrade reflects Haynes' continued liquidity erosion, potential covenant violations, and refinancing risk.

The company's modest base of operations renders its earnings and cash flows susceptible to wide economic swings. Moreover, competitive pressures in the high-performance alloys industry are high and substitute products such as stainless steel are abundant.

Regional and global economic conditions in the aerospace industry remain weak, S&P noted. Dramatic capacity reductions, deferrals of aircraft deliveries and order cancellations continue to reverberate throughout the aerospace supply chain, negatively affecting demand for the company's products.

The adverse conditions in the commercial aerospace industry will likely not abate until 2006.

Sales to the chemicals industry, contingent on chemical capital expansion projects and maintenance spending, also remain sluggish. In addition, shipments to the land-based gas turbine industry have been declining rapidly, further pressuring profitability.

With few signs of near-term improvement, revenue has fallen significantly by 23% through the first nine months of 2003 compared with the same period in 2002, S&P said. Although the company's order backlog increased slightly during the June quarter, it still remains at historically depressed levels. Further hampering the company's profitability prospects are its rising costs. Unit costs have increased as the company's volumes have declined. For the 12-month period ending June 30, 2003, EBITDA coverage of interest was less than 1x. Additional order cancellations or deferrals could further strain the company's operating results during the remainder of 2003.

Moody's upgrades EES Coke

Moody's Investors Service upgraded EES Coke Battery Co. Inc.'s series B notes to Caa1 from Caa2. The outlook is positive.

Moody's said the action reflects the improved credit profile of the current coke offtaker, resulting from the recent acquisition of National Steel Corp.'s steel making and fabrication assets, including the River Rouge steel complex where the project is located, by United States Steel Corp.

While USS has not assumed National Steel's contractual obligations under the existing coke sales agreement, it has agreed to purchase coke from EES Coke through year-end while both parties discuss terms for a firm coke supply arrangement.

The positive outlook reflects Moody's expectation that USS will continue to operate the River Rouge steel complex and is likely to enter into a firm coke supply agreement with the project. A further rating upgrade could occur if a firm coke supply agreement is entered into at terms that provide adequate cash flows to service remaining debt service requirements.

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