S&P Assigns BBB Rating To CapitaLand Bonds

Source : The Business Times, May 5, 2008

STANDARD & Poor's has assigned BBB rating to two sets of convertible bonds for $1 billion and $430 million issued by CapitaLand in 2007 and 2006 respectively.

The rating assignment, which was not solicited by CapitaLand, on the bonds comes after S&P's announcement in March on assigning BBB+ corporate credit rating to CapitaLand and BBB rating on the group's $1.3 billion 10-year convertible bond issue raised earlier this year with a 3.125 per cent per annum coupon rate.

The $1 billion 15-year bonds issued in 2007 have a 2.95 per cent coupon rate, while the $430 million 10-year bonds issued in 2006 have a coupon of 2.1 per cent.

In its release on Friday, S&P said the BBB rating on these two series of bonds reflects their senior unsecured nature.

Debt at the company and subsidiaries levels and priority liabilities at the subsidiaries level are approximately 43 per cent of total assets at the group level, the statement noted.

S&P said it expects the ratio to be maintained at or above 40 per cent of the group's total assets in the short to medium term.