Germany-based engineering and service company Bilfinger faces a weak outlook in its Power Services segment due to postponed investments of utility customers, which we anticipate will translate into lower volumes and a squeeze on profitability in this segment. Despite management's efforts to cut costs to address the current capacity underutilization, in particular in Bilfinger's Piping business, we think that the group may not achieve its profitability targets over the coming 12-24 months. We are therefore revising our outlook on Bilfinger to negative from stable and affirming our 'BBB+/A-2' ratings on the group. The negative outlook reflects our view that prolonged weakness in some of Bilfinger's end markets could continue to pressure profitability and cause credit metrics to weaken. FRANKFURT (Standard
