S&P rates Viesgo Holdco BBB-

Standard & Poor’s said it assigned a preliminary BBB- long-term corporate credit rating to Viesgo Holdco SA.

The outlook is stable.

The preliminary rating is subject to Viesgo Holdco’s successful placement of proposed debt and a receipt and review of the final documentation and additional documents supporting Viesgo Holdco’s insulation from other group entities, S&P said.

The rating also reflects the company’s satisfactory business risk profile and significant financial risk profile, the agency said.

Regulated distribution activities in Spain benefit from a strong- to adequate-regulatory advantage, S&P said.

These positive factors, combined with Viesgo’s dominant position in its service area, are partly mitigated by the higher risk inherent to the company’s wind generation activities, the agency said.

S&P rates WindMW notes BBB-

Standard & Poor’s said it assigned a preliminary BBB- rating to WindMW GmbH’s about €420 million euro-denominated issuance due 2021 and $580 million dollar-denominated issuance due 2027.

The outlook is stable.

The preliminary project rating of BBB- reflects the operations phase of this recently built wind farm, S&P said.

The operations phase stand-alone credit profile is BBB-, the agency added.

The project’s ability to earn its contractual revenues hinges on maintaining consistently high availability, S&P said.

WindMW has established an operating plan with Siemens, which also provides the turbines and offers an availability guarantee, that entails certain operational redundancies to offset the risks associated with the plant’s remoteness and relative inaccessibility, the agency said.

While the higher operating costs and major maintenance needs weigh on debt service coverage ratios somewhat, they do support a base-case assumption of 95% availability and 84% efficiency, S&P said.

Moody’s assigns Baa3 to WindMW bonds

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a senior secured provisional Baa3 rating to roughly €960 million of project bonds, maturing 2021 and 2027, to be issued by WindMW GmbH.

Proceeds will be used to refinance existing bank loans and pay associated swap breakage fees and other transaction commissions and expenses.

The outlook is stable.

"WindMW is Moody's first public rating of an offshore windfarm and sets an important precedent for this developing asset class," Moody's vice president and senior analyst Christopher Bredholt said in a news release.

"The Meerwind project benefits from long term support under the stable German regulatory regime and incorporates a number of features which, when combined with the project's strong debt service coverage ratios, mitigate the risks of the single asset's offshore environment."

© 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.