MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) Feb. 5, 2014--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said that it had kept its 'BBB' ratings on New Zealand telecommunication company Chorus Ltd. on CreditWatch with negative implications, where they were initially placed on Nov. 5, 2013. The initial CreditWatch placement followed the New Zealand Commerce Commission's (NZCC) final determination for Unbundled Bitstream Access (UBA) pricing, which is expected to materially reduce the group's revenue and earnings from December 2014. We are maintaining the CreditWatch negative on Chorus Ltd. pending confirmation and assessment of the group's strategies to address the significant funding shortfall created by the NZCC's UBA pricing decision. "If the UBA decision proceeds as proposed, we expect the group's debt to EBITDA--assuming Chorus takes
