Monday, August 22, 2011

MARC places MTD Infra RM700m debt notes on rating watch

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd (MARC) has placed its AA ID long-term rating on MTD INFRAPERDANA BHD []'s RM700.0 million Islamic medium term notes (IMTN) programme on MARCWatch Developing.

The ratings agency said on Monday, Aug 22 the MARCWatch was'' based on recent developments about the group's toll road concessions, the proposed sale of the concession assets to related parties and retirement of its existing debt.

MTD Infra is'' a unit of MTD CAPITAL BHD []. MTD Infra, holds the concession for the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway (KL-Karak), the East Coast Expressway Phase 1 (ECE1), the East-West Link Expressway (EWL) and the Kuala Lumpur ' Seremban Expressway (KL-Seremban) through its unitss, MTD Prime Sdn Bhd (MTD Prime) and Metramac Sdn Bhd (Metramac).

On Jan 28, the government announced a freeze on toll rate increases for the KL-Karak and ECE1 until Jan 1, 2015 and the early termination of the EWL concession on May 15, 2011.

'MARC expects cash flow coverage for the debt metrics to deteriorate as a result of the reduced toll revenues based on its preliminary analysis of the credit impact of the toll rate freeze and the early termination of the EWL concession.

This is, however, not expected to result in MTD InfraPerdana's credit metrics falling out of line with the current issue rating.

However, MARCH said of more immediate concern and greater credit implication was is the proposed acquisition of the entire business and undertaking of MTD Prime and Metramac for RM3.525 billion cash by MTD Capital's group executive chairman and its president/CEO through a special purpose vehicle. MTD InfraPerdana is expected to retire all of the outstanding notes issued under the rated facility upon completion of the asset disposal.

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