S&P acts on Argentine companies

S&P said it took several actions on Argentine companies after the central bank tightened regulations on accessing foreign exchange.

The agency lowered to or affirmed at CCC- ratings on six Argentine companies and placed them on CreditWatch with negative implications. The companies are AES Argentina Generacion SA, IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones SA, IRSA Propiedades Comerciales SA, Petroquimica Comodoro Rivadavia SA, YPF SA and YPF Energia Electrica SA.

S&P said it downgraded Empresa Distribuidora Y Comercializadora Norte SA to CCC- from CCC and maintained the negative outlook because it views the company’s capital structure as increasingly difficult. Also, the agency cut Compania General de Combustibles SA to CCC with a negative outlook. It, too, has foreign-currency debt coming due within 12 months.

“We're placing our CCC+ ratings on CreditWatch negative on Compania de Transporte de Energia Electrica en Alta Tension Transener SA, Telecom Argentina SA, and Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 SA (AA2000). The first two entities have foreign-currency debts maturing after March 31, 2021, and could eventually get approval from the central bank to repay them under the original terms. AA2000's short-term obligations are denominated in foreign currency as well, but we understand they're to be paid mostly domestically. We will resolve CreditWatch placements in the following weeks once we have more clarity of the implementation of the new foreign exchange rules,” S&P said in a press release.

The agency also affirmed its CCC+ ratings for Transportadora de Gas del Sur SA, Capex SA, and Pampa Energia SA. S&P revised the outlooks for the companies to negative from stable.

Finally, S&P affirmed the CCC rating and negative outlook on CLISA-Compania Latinoamericana de Infraestructura & Servicios SA.

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