Hong Kong, December 03, 2018 -- Moody's Investors Service has placed on review for downgrade China Jinjiang
Environment Holding Co. Ltd.'s (CJE) Ba2 corporate
family rating (CFR) and the Ba3 senior unsecured rating on its USD bond.
RATINGS RATIONALE
"Our review of CJE's ratings reflects its weakened credit profile
due to heightened liquidity risk and challenges related to the previous
outage of certain existing capacity," says Qingqing Guo,
a Moody's Assistant Vice President and Analyst.
"In addition, we expect the relatively weaker credit profile
of CJE's ultimate parent, Hangzhou Jinjiang Group, to
weigh on CJE's ratings," adds Guo.
CJE's outlook was already on negative outlook since April this year,
mainly due to the outage of some of its existing capacity, as part
of an upgrade program related to waste-to-energy projects.
While CJE has been making progress to complete the upgrade program,
the cash flow impact of the outage, combined with the company's
challenging liquidity position and the ultimate parent's weaker
credit profile, means that the company's overall credit profile
may no longer be consistent with a Ba2 CFR.
CJE's weakened credit metrics are primarily a result of reduced
cash flows, driven in turn by the outage of its existing eight operating
waste-to-energy (WTE) projects on a rolling basis.
The outage is part of CJE's ongoing expansion and upgrade program,
which the company expects to complete by end of 2019.
CJE's weak liquidity profile is driven by Moody's expectation
that operating cash flow over the next 12 months will not be sufficient
to cover its maturing debt, capital expenditure program, and
dividends over that period. Moody's also notes the presence
of restrictive covenants in CJE's loan agreement, and which
raises liquidity challenges.
The review of CJE's ratings also considers the continued pressure
on its credit profile from the lingering credit weakness of its ultimate
parent, Hangzhou Jinjiang Group (HZJJ).
HZJJ's credit profile is challenged by its high exposure to volatile
aluminum and raw materials prices, tightened environmental regulation
and stricter lending policies applicable to the oversupplied industry.
Any weakening in HZJJ's credit profile directly constrains CJE's
ratings.
Moody's ratings review will focus on: (1) CJE's plan
to reduce its liquidity challenges, including compliance with terms
and conditions of its facilities and (2) progress of CJE's upgrade
program and ongoing expansion, and the resulting impact on the company's
financial metrics.
The review will also take into account the extent to which HZJJ's
credit profile will weigh on CJE's ratings.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Unregulated Utilities and Unregulated
Power Companies published in May 2017. Please see the Rating Methodologies
page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.
China Jinjiang Environment Holding Co. Ltd. (CJE) is a Singapore-listed
waste-to-energy (WTE) operator in China. The ultimate
parent, HZJJ, owned 39.4% of CJE as of June
2018.
CJE operates along the whole value chain in the WTE sector, from
planning and construction to the operation and management of WTE facilities.
At the end of September 2018, CJE had 20 operating WTE facilities
and 2 resource recycling projects with a total waste treatment capacity
of 29,240 tons/day and electricity generation capacity of 574MW
covering 12 provinces in China.
The local market analyst for these ratings is Qingqing Guo, +86
(21) 2057-4093.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
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