Moody's cuts Chemours

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded the Chemours Co.'s ratings, including the corporate family rating to Ba3 from Ba2, the secured bank facilities to Ba1 from Baa3 and the senior unsecured rating to B1 from Ba3. The speculative grade liquidity rating remains SGL-1.

The outlook is negative, reflecting the heightened and growing level of litigation risk stemming from actions filed by states, environmental regulators, water municipalities and private plaintiffs associated with perfluorochemicals (or PFAS), a family of chemicals used for decades to process a wide range of fluoropolymers, Moody’s said.

"The downgrade reflects the growing PFAS caseload, its impact on the potential ultimate liability and other adverse developments associated with PFAS litigation," said Joseph Princiotta, a senior vice president at Moody's, in a press release.

"The downgrade also reflects profit pressures in flouroproducts and TiO2 and the resulting stress to metrics and cash flow this year," Princiotta added.

© 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.