S&P rates OPTI Canada loan BB+, notes BB

Standard & Poor's said it assigned its BB+ rating, with a recovery rating of 1, to OPTI Canada Inc.'s proposed five-year C$500 million senior secured revolving credit facility.

In addition, S&P said it assigned its BB rating, with a recovery rating of 2, to OPTI's $1.0 billion secured notes.

At the same time, the agency said it affirmed its BB long-term corporate credit rating and its BB+ bank loan rating, with a recovery rating of 1, on OPTI's existing seven-year $450 million secured term loan B.

The outlook is stable.

According to S&P, the revolving credit facility will go toward general corporate purposes, including project costs associated with the construction of phase 1 of its Long Lake project, initial engineering costs for phase 2, land lease acquisitions and pre-funding of interest payable until December 2008.

S&P said that the ratings on OPTI reflect the company's lack of internal cash flow generation, as it is in the construction phase of its Long Lake oil sands project, its high leverage and the risk of cost increases on the construction of its project.

© 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.