New York, September 11, 2017 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") assigned a Baa3 rating to Empresa
Nacional del Petróleo ("ENAP")'s proposed USD 600 million
senior unsecured notes due 2037. Proceeds from the proposed notes
will be used primarily to repay debt and other general corporate purposes.
The rating outlook is stable.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The proposed notes issuance is credit positive because it lowers ENAP's
refinancing risk, which is high. As of June 2017, its
scheduled long term debt payments in the next years were as follows:
USD 161 million in 2017, USD 420 million in 2018, USD 613
million in 2019, and USD 2.4 billion thereafter. Additionally,
ENAP does not have committed revolving credit facilities. Refinancing
concerns, however, are partially tempered by good capital
market access. Furthermore, the company's bank loans are
currently not subject to financial covenants.
ENAP's liquidity is weak, although supported by the benefits associated
with its ownership by the Chilean state. As of June 30, 2017,
the company's cash stood at USD 115 million, which negatively
compares with the USD 581 million in total debt maturing from July 2017
to December 2018. However, USD 340 million in short term
debt are related to bank short term facilities, used to import crude
and oil products; Moody's believes that ENAP will continue to be
able to roll over these facilitates relatively easily. The constant
need to access banking credit facilities is a concern but ENAP's funding
strategy and financial policies have allowed the company to quickly adjust
local prices to volatile costs and thus protect its profit margin.
ENAP's Baa3 rating and b2 Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA, which
indicates a company's intrinsic risk regardless of external support
considerations) are based on its long operating history, high market
share in Chile and increasing business diversity. ENAP's Solomon
Complexity Index is 10.8, which supports a high-value
product slate at 80% between gasoline and diesel. While
ENAP is primarily a refining company, its revenues and cash flow
have benefitted from oil and gas exploration and production, which
in 2016 represented over 30% of EBITDA. In addition,
since 2014, the company's power generation business has sustained
efforts to control costs using ENAP's own natural gas to generate power,
which in turn is used in its refining operations or sold to third parties.
However, ENAP's ratings are constrained by a tight liquidity management,
the inherent volatility of commodity prices and the resulting uncertain
cash flow generation and profitability, as well as elevated debt
leverage, which reached 8.2x as of the last 12 months ended
June2017. In the period, ENAP's debt rose only slightly but
leverage increased from 7.4x in 2016 given lower operating profit,
driven by increasing international crude prices and lower crack spreads.
Increasing oil prices indirectly strain ENAP's refining margins since
the company is prohibited from passing along increased power generation
costs, which in Chile is mostly diesel.
Since ENAP is 100% owned by the Chilean government, the company's
Baa3 rating reflects the application of Moody's joint default rating methodology
for government-related issuers (GRIs). ENAP's Baa3 rating
benefits from five notches of uplift from its b2 BCA, given Moody's
assumption of a high probability of support from the government of Chile
in case of a distress situation. The government's ability to provide
support to ENAP is measured by its Aa3 credit rating and negative outlook,
weakened somewhat by the high correlation between the government and the
company on credit factors that could cause stress on both simultaneously.
ENAP's stable Baa3 rating outlook assumes that its credit metrics will
gradually improve starting in 2018. The company's financial profile
will improve if it continues increasing business diversification and operating
cash flow, which would help reduce leverage over the medium-term.
The stable outlook also assumes that Chilean government support of the
company will remain high.
A significantly improved and sustained financial leverage profile more
supportive of the cyclicality and volatility of the refining sector could
lead to an upgrade, specifically debt/EBITDA at or below 5x.
If ENAP is unable to start its deleveraging trend in 2018 or if there
are indications of reduced implicit government support for ENAP,
its b2 BCA could be lowered or its Baa3 rating could be downgraded.
The methodologies used in this rating were Refining and Marketing Industry
published in November 2016, and Government-Related Issuers
published in August 2017. Please see the Rating Methodologies page
on www.moodys.com for a copy of these methodologies.
ENAP is Chile's national oil company and the second largest state-owned
company in the country. ENAP operates in Exploration & Production,
Refining & Marketing, and Gas & Power. The company
was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile.
In June 2017, it had total assets in the amount of USD 6.1
billion.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings
are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's
rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to
each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their
credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating.
For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory
disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and
in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to
the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction
structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive
rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further
information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the
respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action,
and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action,
the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity.
Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures,
if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure
to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued
the rating.
Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Nymia C. Almeida
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's de Mexico S.A. de C.V
Ave. Paseo de las Palmas
No. 405 - 502
Col. Lomas de Chapultepec
Mexico, DF 11000
Mexico
JOURNALISTS: 1 888 779 5833
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Marianna Waltz, CFA
MD - Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 800 891 2518
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Releasing Office:
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