S&P downgrades Banque PSA Finance to junk

Standard & Poor's said it lowered the long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on Banque PSA Finance and its subsidiary Credipar to BB+/B from BBB-/A-3.

The outlooks on both companies are negative.

Banque PSA Finance is Peugeot SA's captive finance company.

The agency also said it lowered the rating on the bank's subordinated debt tranche of its medium-term note program to BB- from BB+. Also downgraded was the short-term counterparty credit rating on Sofira, also a subsidiary of the bank, to B from A-3.

The bank's stand-alone credit profile was revised to BB+ from BBB-.

The downgrades follow the downgrade of Peugeot based on a view that the bank's creditworthiness is correlated to that of its parent, S&P said.

The stand-alone ratings were lowered to reflect that the company's ability to maintain revenues at the resilient historical levels has diminished, owing to Peugeot's weakening sales, the agency said.

Peugeot's lackluster sales prospects in Europe could translate into a contracting potential customer base at Banque PSA Finance, S&P added.

© 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.