Our ratings on E-CL S.A. reflect the company's "satisfactory" business risk profile and "intermediate" financial risk profile. E-CL's business risk profile mainly benefits from its strong market position in Chile's Northern Interconnected System (SING), with about 50% market share in terms of installed power generating capacity; its diversified capacity mainly among coal and natural gas fired units; its large portfolio of power sale contracts with solid counterparties; a sale pricing mechanism that allows to pass-through fuel costs to its customers; and its strong ownership. The ratings also consider the high competitive pressures from other large power generators, volatile market conditions in the SING due to potential operational disruptions in a context of high contracted sales and highly volatile fuel prices
