S&P affirms Enel

Standard & Poor's said it affirmed its A- long-term and A-2 short-term corporate credit ratings on Enel SpA and removed the long-term rating from CreditWatch, where it had been placed with negative implications on April 3 following the group's joint debt-financed takeover bid with Acciona SA for Endesa SA.

The outlook is negative.

The agency said the affirmation reflects its expectation that Enel will strengthen its capital structure in 2008 and 2009 by using disposal proceeds to deleverage. Enel's capital structure has weakened significantly, owing to the €28.2 billion acquisition of 67% of Endesa and the purchase of some Russian assets for about €4 billion, but S&P said Enel expects to sell material assets with a total enterprise value of about €18 billion over the next couple of years.

The negative outlook reflects some uncertainty about Enel's ability to fully implement its disposal program and achieve - and then sustain - funds from operations to debt of about 18% and funds from operations interest coverage of about 4 times by year-end 2009, S&P said.

© 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.