Fortescue Metals Group's Senior Unsecured Notes Placed On CreditWatch Positive Due To Expected Repayment Of Secured Debt

MELBOURNE (S&P Global Ratings) May 9, 2017--S&P Global Ratings today said that it had placed its 'BB-' long-term issue credit rating on Fortescue Metals Group Ltd.'s senior unsecured notes due 2022 on CreditWatch with positive implications. The CreditWatch placement follows Fortescue's launch of a US$1 billion senior unsecured note--proceeds of which the company will use to repay the outstanding US$976 million term loan due 2019. We will resolve the CreditWatch and assign ratings on the new unsecured notes once Fortescue has raised the proceeds. The repayment of the term loan would, in our opinion, improve significantly the recovery prospects of unsecured notes under our hypothetical default scenario. As such, the ratings on the outstanding 2022 unsecured notes and any new

...MELBOURNE (S&P Global Ratings) May 9, 2017--S&P Global Ratings today said that it had placed its '##-' long-term issue credit rating on Fortescue Metals Group Ltd.'s senior unsecured notes due 2022 on CreditWatch with positive implications. The CreditWatch placement follows Fortescue's launch of a US$1 billion senior unsecured note--proceeds of which the company will use to repay the outstanding US$976 million term loan due 2019. We will resolve the CreditWatch and assign ratings on the new unsecured notes once Fortescue has raised the proceeds. The repayment of the term loan would, in our opinion, improve significantly the recovery prospects of unsecured notes under our hypothetical default scenario. As such, the ratings on the outstanding 2022 unsecured notes and any new unsecured issuance will likely be equal to the '##+/Stable' corporate credit rating on Fortescue. The corporate credit rating on Fortescue is unaffected by the proposed new note issuance. The rating reflects Fortescue's...

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