Bulletin: Thai Oil Ratings Not Affected By Weak 2014 Results

SINGAPORE (Standard&Poor's) Feb. 13, 2015--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that Thai Oil Public Co. Ltd.'s weak 2014 financial results have no impact on the corporate credit ratings (BBB/Stable/--; axA/--). Despite the tough industry conditions in the refining sector and our expectation of that continuing for the next 12 months at least, our view is for Thai Oil to remain a "highly strategic" subsidiary of its major shareholder PTT Public Co. Ltd. We had anticipated Thai Oil's weak financial performance when we lowered our stand-alone credit profile on the company to 'bb+' from 'bbb-' on Dec. 11, 2014. We believe the 'bb+' stand-alone credit profile reflects the company's higher sensitivity to oil price fluctuations and inventory losses,

...SINGAPORE (Standard & Poor's) Feb. 13, 2015--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that Thai Oil Public Co. Ltd.'s weak 2014 financial results have no impact on the corporate credit ratings (###/Stable/--; axA/--). Despite the tough industry conditions in the refining sector and our expectation of that continuing for the next 12 months at least, our view is for Thai Oil to remain a "highly strategic" subsidiary of its major shareholder PTT Public Co. Ltd. We had anticipated Thai Oil's weak financial performance when we lowered our stand-alone credit profile on the company to '##+' from '###-' on Dec. 11, 2014. We believe the '##+' stand-alone credit profile reflects the company's higher sensitivity to oil price fluctuations and inventory losses, given its much increased debt over the past three years. Standard & Poor's still projects Thai Oil's debt-to-EBITDA ratio will improve to 3.5x-4.5x in 2015 and further to 3.0x in 2016. Our base case assumes no inventory gains or losses in...

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