“The company has sufficient resources to cover its payments for the debt maturing in 2012; moreover, the company’s excellent debt repayment service comes from a solid capacity to generate positive cash flows from its core operations,” Transelectrica said in a statement issued a day after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the company to speculative grade.
Wednesday, Moody’s cut Transelectrica’s credit ratings to Ba1 from Baa3 and placed the company under review for further downgrade, saying it expects less support from the government in case of extraordinary events.
Transelectrica has 58.69% of its shares in the hands of the state, through the Economy Ministry.
“Transelectrica’s Ba1 rating incorporates our assumption of very high default dependence between the company and its governmental owner. Transelectrica derives virtually all of its revenues from domestic activities resulting in the significant degree of exposure to common drivers of credit quality,” Moody’s said in a statement.
End-2011, Transelectrica had outstanding debts worth 2.7 billion lei (EUR602 million).