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Industry Report Card: Conservative Strategies Are Helping Top European Utilities Resist Credit Quality Decline Jul 10
Standard & Poors, July 2010
Abstract
Maintaining ratings stability is looking difficult for leading European utilities. Six of the top 20 European utilities rated by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services have negative outlooks. These outlooks are generally not a result of business risk issues, most utilities having proven resilient in 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. Rather, they reflect deteriorating financial metrics as a result of very substantial debt burdens. The 20 largest rated European utilities are principally energy utilities based in Western Europe. We also include one entity based in Russia, RusHydro. The water companies United Utilities and Veolia Environnement are the only two utilities covered in this report card that are not focused on power. We changed only one rating in the first...
Standard and Poors RatingsXpress Credit Research provides in-depth coverage of international corporates, financial institutions, insurance companies, utilities, sovereigns and structured finance programs. RatingsXpress Credit Research lets users determine the credit rating of holdings and identify key factors underlying an issuer's creditworthiness, distinguishes the different risk exposures for new and existing deals, and provides an understanding of how their analysts interpret key regulatory, political and environmental events and their economic impact.
Research Type: Commentary
Criteria articles describe the thought process and methodology Standard & Poor's analysts use in determining ratings. These commentary pieces discuss both the quantitative (economic and financial) and qualitative (business analysis and caliber of management) aspects of the analysis, as well as legal issues.
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