Moody's ups Kansas City Southern

Moody's Investors Service said it upgraded Kansas City Southern's probability of default and corporate family rating to Ba3 from B1, multiple seniority shelf to provisional B1 and provisional B2 from provisional B2 and provisional B3, along with Kansas City Southern Railway Co.'s multiple seniority shelf to provisional B1 and provisional B2 from provisional B2 and provisional B3, senior secured bank credit facility to Ba1 from Ba2 and senior unsecured regular bond/debenture to B1 from B2.

The agency also said it upgraded Kansas City Southern de Mexico, SA de CV's corporate family rating to B1 from B2, senior secured bank credit facility to Ba3 from B1 and senior unsecured regular bond/debenture to B1 from B2, along with Southern Capital Corp.'s senior secured equipment trust to Ba1 from Ba2.

The outlook is positive.

The upgrades were due to the company's dramatically improved operating results in 2010, Moody's said, and expectations that the entities will continue to exhibit robust financial performance over the next few years as demand will continue to grow in most freight groups at the railroads in a robust pricing environment.

The upgrades also consider the important steps that the company has taken in refinancing a substantial amount of debt and improve its debt maturity profile, the agency 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.