Chorus is progressing a range of revenue, cost, and capital management initiatives to moderate the impact of a proposed reduction in regulated network pricing from December 2014. We believe that these initiatives should provide Chorus with sufficient flexibility to manage its financial risk profile in line with expectations for the 'BBB' rating, including fully adjusted debt to EBITDA less than 4x. Furthermore, we believe Chorus remains committed to supporting credit quality at the current rating level. However, our key near-term ratings focus is the level of headroom within bank facility financial covenants as the group's capital expenditure funding peaks in 2016 and 2017. Accordingly, we have affirmed the 'BBB' rating but assigned a negative outlook, reflecting the downside risks to
