S&P revises Terminales Portuarios view to negative

S&P said it revised the outlook for Terminales Portuarios Euroandinos Paita (Paita or TPE) to negative from stable and affirmed the BB+ debt rating.

Even though the port continued to operate during lockdown measures enacted to curtail the pandemic, several industries that use the port were affected by the measures.

“Therefore, during the first quarter of the year, volumes of containers handled at Paita, which represent 80%-90% of revenues, increased only 1.6% year over year. This was drastically down from our expectation of a 10% growth stemming from a record harvest of fruits such as avocados, grapes, bananas, and mangos, which are the principal products that Paita handles. The much lower growth in volumes at TPE was mainly due to a 27% reduction in exports during the past two months, which stemmed from a lower output of fish-derived products because of the lockdowns,” S&P said in a press release.

The outlook reflects the risk of a downgrade in the next 12 months if volumes decline at a steeper rate than what S&P currently expects, or 15% in 2020, the agency said.

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