Moody's affirms Sociedad Quimica y Minera note at Baa1

Moody's Investors Service said it confirmed the Baa1 rating on Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA's $200 million senior unsecured notes due 2016 following the company's establishment of committed, three-year credit facilities totaling $130 million that will help ensure adequate liquidity over the intermediate term.

The concludes the review for possible downgrade, and the outlook is stable.

The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectations that the company will continue to maintain strong fundamentals, experience strong demand for its products and have sufficient liquidity to meet its sizeable cash flow requirements over the next 12 to 18 months.

The review for possible downgrade was begun in March 2006 based primarily on Sociedad Quimica y Minera's lack of a committed credit facility of sufficient size to support its elevated capex program, seasonal working capital needs, $200 million loan participation certificates maturity in September and significant increase in dividends.

While the facilities have been obtained and the company will not have significant debt maturities in 2007, Moody's said the company must still contend with a sizeable dividend and above-average capex spending levels and working-capital requirements to support growing sales.

© 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.