Bangkok--29 Oct--Moody's
Moody's has today changed the outlook to stable from negative for PTT Public Company Ltd's A3 local currency issuer rating and foreign currency bond rating.
"The rating action follows Moody's decision to revise the outlook on Thailand's sovereign ratings to stable from negative, says Renee Lam, a Moody's Vice President and Senior Analyst.
PTT's final A3 rating incorporates the credit support that Moody's believes the Thai government (Baa1/stable) is likely to provide -- under the Joint Default Analysis approach applied to government-related issuers
-- in view of its 67% effective stake in the company and PTT's strategic importance to the country. Such an approach results in one-notch uplift to the final A3 rating.
PTT's stand-alone Baa1 rating continues to be underpinned by its relatively stable monopoly position in gas transmission and distribution in Thailand, and which accounts for about 30% of its EBITDA.
The last rating action on PTT was on June 28, 2010 when Moody's downgraded to A3 from A2 PTT's local currency issuer rating and foreign currency bond rating, and affirming the company's A3 foreign currency issuer rating, with a negative outlook.
The principal methodology used in rating PTT was Moody's "Global Integrated Oil & Gas Industry" published in November 2009. Other methodologies and factors that may have been considered in the process of rating PTT can also be found on Moody's website.
PTT -- 51.36% directly owned by the Ministry of Finance with a further 15.33% held through Vayupak Mutual (government-invested funds) -- is Thailand's fully integrated oil, gas and petrochemical company.