Fitch Affirms PF Export Master Receivables Trust Series 2003.CHICAGO -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. affirms PF Export Master Receivables Trust's (the trust) fixed-rate senior trust certificates as follows: -- $550 million series 2003-A at 'BBB'; -- $200 million series 2003-B at 'BBB' underlying. The 2003-B series is rated 'AAA' due to a financial guaranty As a verb, to agree to be responsible for the payment of another's debt or the performance of another's duty, liability, or obligation if that person does not perform as he or she is legally obligated to do; to assume the responsibility of a guarantor; to warrant. insurance policy from MBIA MBIA Montana Building Industry Association MBIA Municipal Bond Insurance Association MBIA Michigan Boating Industries Association MBIA Municipal Bond Investors Assurance MBIA Massachusetts Brain Injury Association MBIA Maryland Business Incubation Association Insurance Corp., which Fitch currently rates 'AAA'. The series 2003 senior trust certificates represent senior undivided UNDIVIDED. That which is held by the same title by two or more persons, whether their rights are equal, as to value or quantity, or unequal. 2. Tenants in common, joint-tenants, and partners, hold an undivided right in their respective properties, until beneficial interests in the trust assets. The trust is backed by the future and existing receivables generated by Petroleo Brasiliero S.A. (Petrobras) through Petrobras Finance. Petrobras sells fuel oil to Petrobras Finance, and Petrobras Finance then sells the product to buyers, including Petrobras International Finance Co. (PIFCO), the off-taker (Citibank N.A.) and other third party buyers. The 2003 series senior trust certificates are backed by the receivables generated by the future sale of heavy fuel oil (bunker bunk, bunker large storage bin. bunk forage forage, usually ensilage stored in a large storage bunk and made available to cattle or other livestock along a face of the storage. fuel and fuel oil) produced by Petrobras and sold to Petrobras Finance. The current affirmation A solemn and formal declaration of the truth of a statement, such as an Affidavit or the actual or prospective testimony of a witness or a party that takes the place of an oath. An affirmation is also used when a person cannot take an oath because of religious convictions. reflects the recently amended structure, which removes bunker fuel receivables from the collateral base. The amended structure will only be supported by the receivables generated from the sale of exported fuel oil. Despite the removal of collateral, the structure remains well supported by the existing future fuel oil receivables and the general improvements in the credit quality of Brazil and Petrobras. The improving credit quality for Brazil and Petrobras has been reflected by the multiple notch notch (noch) incisure; an indentation on the edge of a bone or other organ. aortic notch dicrotic n. cardiac notch 1. upgrades since the issuance of the series 2003 senior trust certificates. Performance of the underlying collateral continues to exceed original projections. While much of the increase in collections has arisen from higher fuel oil prices, higher than expected export volumes were significant as well. These higher collections have increased the corresponding coverage levels to comfortable levels. While the removal of the bunker fuel will cause a reduction in current coverage levels, Fitch projects that coverage ratios will remain strong. Given the current outstanding debt, Fitch's projected base case average coverage ratio will be greater than 10 times (x). The minimum coverage level in any one payment period is projected to be greater than 5x. In addition to the amendment to the definition of heavy fuel oil, there will also be an amendment to the required daily average of fuel oil barrels that are exported. This number will be reduced from 70,000 barrels to 50,000 barrels, coinciding with the removal of bunker fuel barrels from the calculation. Throughout the life of this program, Petrobras has exported a daily average of about 166,000 barrels (including bunker fuel). Since program inception, fuel oil has represented about 60% of heavy fuel oil. The assigned 'BBB' rating for the 2003-A series is higher than Brazil's foreign and local currency ratings of 'BB-', as the transaction mitigates certain sovereign risks Sovereign Risk The risk that a foreign central bank will alter its foreign-exchange regulations thereby significantly reducing or completely nulling the value of foreign-exchange contracts. associated with Brazil. In addition to the off-taker and PIFCO, other third party buyers have signed Notice and Acknowledgements that obligate obligate /ob·li·gate/ (ob´li-gat) pertaining to or characterized by the ability to survive only in a particular environment or to assume only a particular role, as an obligate anaerobe. these entities to make payments into an offshore collection account controlled by the trustee. Petrobras is Brazil's largest company in terms of revenues and is an integrated oil and gas company engaged in exploration, development and production of hydrocarbons hydrocarbons (hīˈ·drō·kärˑ·b  nz),n. , and in the refining, marketing, transportation and distribution of oil and a range of petroleum products, petroleum derivatives, petrochemicals and liquid petroleum gas. A Fitch new issue report for this transaction can be found on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com, titled 'PF Export Receivables Master Trust (Petrobras)-Series 2003'. A surveillance report, along with a full sovereign report regarding the credit rating of Brazil can also be found on Fitch's web site. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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