Moody’s downgrades Qatar Petroleum

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded Qatar Petroleum’s long-term issuer rating to Aa3 from Aa2, Industries Qatar QSC’s long-term issuer rating to A1 from Aa3 and the long-term issuer rating and senior bond ratings of Qatari Diar Finance QSC to Aa3 from Aa2. The outlook has been changed to stable from negative.

The downgrade follows the downgrade of Qatar’s sovereign rating to Aa3 from Aa2 and primarily reflects the strong credit linkages between Qatar Petroleum and the government of Qatar, the agency said.

Moody’s said that despite the negative impact of decrease in oil and gas prices since the second half of 2014 on Qatar Petroleum's revenue and cash flow generation, the company continues to have a very solid financial profile supported by a net cash position as of year-end 2015, the reduction and deferment in capex and the reduction of opex over the past 18 months in order to increase operational efficiencies and a number of consolidations across its portfolio of entities.

© 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.