HONG KONG (Standard&Poor's) April 8, 2014--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said its long-term corporate credit rating on Korea-based oil refiner SK Innovation Co. Ltd. (BBB/Negative/--) is unaffected by the company's announcement that it has acquired stakes in two exploration and production (E&P) assets in the U.S. In our view, the acquisition will not affect SK Innovation's credit quality, because our base case scenario for SK Innovation already includes about Korean won (KRW) 500 billion in acquisition costs for overseas oil E&P assets in 2014. At a value of nearly KRW400 billion, the announced acquisitions are within our expectations and will not adversely affect the company's financial risk profile. We estimate the new acquisitions will contribute less than
