Moody’s ups U.S. Steel, debt

Moody's Investors Service said it upgraded United States Steel Corp.'s corporate family rating to B1 from B3 and probability of default rating to B1-PD from B3-PD.

At the same time, the agency upgraded the company's senior secured rating to Ba2 from B1 and the senior unsecured ratings, including the IRB's ratings, to B2 from Caa1.

The senior unsecured rating on the company's shelf registration was upgraded to provisional B2 from provisional Caa1. The speculative grade liquidity rating was upgraded to SGL-1 from SGL-2.

The outlook is stable.

Moody’s said the upgrade to B1 corporate family rating reflects the company’s continued improving earnings performance over the last three quarters, strengthened debt protection measures and reduced leverage.

Based on the fourth quarter earnings release, pro forma leverage as measured by the debt/EBITDA ratio (including Moody's standard adjustments) improved to 3.5 times at Dec. 31, 2017, from 7.5 times the previous year.

"The company's continued focus on debt reduction in combination with a material improvement in EBITDA contributed to the overall improvement in leverage," Moody’s senior vice president Carol Cowan said in a news release.

© 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.