Nakilat Reports Standard & Poor’s Strong
Credit Rating
25
January 2008
Standard & Poor’s Reaffirmed Strong Credit
Rating (A+) of Nakilat Inc.
Note: The
following is a partial excerpt taken from
Standard & Poor’s Transaction Update: Nakilat Inc.
The 'A+' long-term senior secured debt rating on
the $850 million series A bonds and the 'A'
long-term subordinated secured debt rating on the
$300 million second-priority series A bonds, both
due 2033, issued by Nakilat Inc., reflect a
composite of credit factors (outlined below). The
long-term corporate credit rating on Nakilat is
'A+', with a stable outlook.
Both the long-term corporate credit rating and the
subordinated secured debt rating were raised by one
notch to ‘A+’ and ‘A’ respectively on March 29,
2007, reflecting the improvement in long-term
foreign and local-currency ratings on the state of
Qatar, which were raised to ‘AA-‘ from ‘A+’. The
senior secured debt rating remained unchanged.
Qatar is undertaking an ambitious investment
program, driven by state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP;
AA-/Stable/--), the rating on which was also raised
by one notch on March 6, 2007, in line with the
sovereign upgrade. The program is intended to
generate substantial revenues for the state by
producing and selling LNG in world markets. Nakilat
has a pivotal role in generating these revenues by
shipping much of the country's LNG, following its
production by several project companies.
Nakilat was established to provide shipping services
to Qatari LNG producers.
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