S&P Lowers CITGO Petroleum Rating to ‘B+’; Outlook Negative
S&P views Houston-based refiner CITGO Petroleum Corp. as an insulated subsidiary to its Venezuelan parent Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), currently rated ‘B’ with a negative outlook, and allows for a one notch separation between CITGO and PDVSA.
NEW YORK – Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said on Friday it lowered its corporate credit rating on Houston-based CITGO Petroleum Corp. to ‘B+’ from ‘BB-’.
All related issue-level ratings on the company’s debt were also lowered by one notch in conjunction with the downgrade. The ratings were removed from CreditWatch, where the agency placed them with negative implications on Nov. 27, 2013. The rating outlook is negative. Recovery ratings on the company’s debt issues remain unchanged.
S&P bases its downgrade on the application of the group ratings methodology and its assessment of CITGO as an insulated subsidiary to its Venezuelan parent, PDVSA. The agency assesses the group credit profile of PDVSA at ‘b’, in line with its corporate credit rating on PDVSA. S&P believes the facts and circumstances warrant CITGO being rated one notch above PDVSA.
In its view, there could be scenarios in which PDVSA could incur financial distress but the creditworthiness of CITGO remain relatively unscathed. CITGO is severable from PDVSA, has independent financial prospects, and holds itself out as a separate entity. The cross-border ownership and the highly restrictive debt covenants at CITGO lower the probability of it being drawn into a potential PDVSA bankruptcy.
At the same time, S&P believes no more than one notch of separation is warranted given PDVSA’s full control over CITGO. There is no presence of independent directors or other structural ring-fencing features.
At the current rating level, the negative outlook on CITGO mirrors that on PDVSA. The outlook on PDVSA reflects that on Venezuela.
“We do not expect PDVSA’s relationship with the government to change significantly in the next two to three years,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Nora Pickens. “We also believe that the government will not significantly reduce its heavy involvement in the sector or in the company. Therefore, the rating on PDVSA will likely follow the rating trajectory on the sovereign.”
S&P would revise the outlook on CITGO to stable in the event that the agency would do the same to the outlook on PDVSA. Similarly, it would likely downgrade CITGO if PDVSA were downgraded. Since CITGO’s SACP is ‘bb’, it is unlikely that it would lower CITGO’s rating due to company-specific factors.