Fitch puts Mirant on negative watch

Fitch Ratings said it placed the ratings of Mirant Corp., including the issuer default rating (IDR) of B+, and its subsidiaries on rating watch negative following its announced plans to buy back stock and sell its Philippine and Caribbean assets.

Fitch said the announcement follows a recent unsolicited offer to purchase a competitor, which has since been terminated. Fitch said further strategic announcements are likely as management has not yet articulated its plans for the cash generated from the sale of the international assets. Redeployment of the sales proceeds combined with the planned treasury share repurchase and pending sale of international assets will transform Mirant's business franchise, risk and financial profile.

Mirant will be challenged to redeploy the cash generated from the international asset sales in a manner that maintains leverage and coverage metrics.

Consequently, in the absence of the use of the proceeds from the sale of the international assets to pay down debt in a material way, Fitch said it expects to downgrade Mirant's ratings.

Ratings affected are include Mirant Corp.'s IDR of B+; Mirant Mid-Atlantic LLC's IDR of B+ and pass-through certificates rated BB+; Mirant North America Inc.'s IDR of B, senior secured bank debt rated BB, senior secured term loan rated BB and senior unsecured notes rated BB-; and Mirant Americas Generation's IDR of B+ and senior unsecured notes rated B.

© 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.