S&P, Moody's boost Newmont's credit ratings

摘要

New York--Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service last week both upgraded their credit ratings on Newmont Mining, the world's leading gold producer. S&P boosted the credit and unsecured debt ratings on Newmont Mining to BBB+/Stable from BBB, and raised the subordinated debt rating to BBB from BBB-. Also, S&P assigned its BBB+ rating to Newmont's proposed 500-mil dollars of senior unsecured notes due 2035. "The outlook Is stable," said S&P Newmont's total debt was about 1.5-bil dollars as of Dec 31, 2004, including its share of non-recourse debt at the Batu Hijau operations in Indonesia. 'The upgrade reflects the improvement in Newmont's financial profile and the expectations that gold prices will remain at levels sufficient to allow Newmont to maintain a conservative financial profile while it significantly increases its capital expenditures over the next two years," S&P said.