KUALA LUMPUR: S&P Global Ratings has lowered the issue rating on Tenaga Nasional Bhd
's debt notes and those that it guarantees by one notch from BBB+ to BBB.
The ratings agency said on Wednesday it had reviewed its senior unsecured issue-level rating for Tenaga that were labeled as "under criteria observation" (UCO) after publishing its revised issue ratings criteria on Sept 21.
“With our criteria review completed, we are removing the UCO designation and are lowering the issue rating on Tenaga's notes and those that it guarantees to BBB from BBB+,” it said.
S&P explained these rating actions stemmed solely from the application of its revised issue rating criteria and did not reflect any change in its assessment of the corporate credit rating for issuer of the affected debt issues.
“Our rating action takes into consideration the capital structure of Tenaga as of May 31, 2017. The capital structure consists of RM24.51bil of secured debt and RM12.47bil unsecured debt that Tenaga and its subsidiaries issued.
“We therefore have arrived at the analytical conclusion that the senior unsecured debt issued or guaranteed (for TNB Global Ventures Capital Bhd) by Tenaga is rated 'BBB',” it said.
S&P said that was a notch below the corporate credit rating of Tenaga, reflecting significant subordination of this senior unsecured debt relative to other debt in Tenaga's consolidated capital structure.
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