Moody's rates Link notes A3

Moody's Investors Services said it assigned an A3 rating to Link Real Estate Investment Trust's $1 billion medium-term note program and affirmed its A3 issuer rating.

The outlook remains stable.

"Link's A3 rating reflects its significant geographic coverage within Hong Kong through its 180 properties - including retail and car park facilities - which are more resilient in a down market than the office sector," Peter Choy, a Moody's vice president and senior credit officer, said in a statement.

"The rating also reflects its low appetite for asset acquisitions and its business strategy of improving earning potential of its malls through asset enhancement and improving tenant and trade mix," Choy said.

"As such, Moody's expects Link to maintain relatively low debt leverage with debt/EBITDA of around 4.5x and EBITDA/interest of 4.5x - 5.x, which will support its current rating," he added.

Link's rating is tempered by its lower-quality assets as compared with those owned by Hong Kong's other major real estate companies, the agency noted.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.