...February 9, 2020 MELBOURNE (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 10, 2020--S&P Global Ratings said today that the performance of Aurizon Holdings Ltd. and the company's two subsidiaries, Aurizon Operations Ltd. (AUO, ###+/Stable/--) and Aurizon Network Pty Ltd. (AUN, ###+/Stable/--), continues to be broadly in line with our expectations. Financial performance lifted due to increased tariffs under negotiated agreements with coal miners and improved bulk revenues, offset by a higher share buyback. We believe the group has now broadly consolidated under its new organizational structure. The shift to a higher weighted-average cost of capital under the new agreements (to 5.9% applicable retrospectively from May 2019, from 5.7%) will support AUN's below-rail business. Still, Aurizon group's cost efficiency and performance to agreed costs with miners under the new agreements will remain an important part of the process. The above-rail coal volumes have reduced to 210-220 million metric tonnes per annum (mtpa)...
