Fitch Upgrades EES Coke Battery, LLC to 'BBB-'.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. has upgraded EES See Skipjack algorithm. Coke Battery, LLC's (EES Coke) series B, $75 million senior secured notes due 2007 to 'BBB-' from 'CCC'. The notes have been removed from Rating Watch Positive. The rating action is due to improved recent and projected financial and operating performance. EES Coke has entered into a coke purchase agreement with Mittal Steel USA Inc. (MSUSA MSUSA Main Street, USA (Disney) ) for 2006 through 2015. MSUSA is a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of Mittal Steel Company Mittal Steel Company N.V. (Euronext: MT, NYSE: MT) was the world's largest steel producer by volume, and also the largest in turnover. Company is now part of Arcelor Mittal. CEO Lakshmi Mittal's family owned 88% of the company. N.V. ('BBB' on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch). E[acute accent]For years 2006 through 2010, the coke purchase agreement is a requirements contract; MSUSA is required to buy up to 100% of EES Coke's production only if it is needed by MSUSA. Fitch believes that MSUSA will purchase all of EES Coke's production through the maturity of the series B notes, according to current outlooks for steel production and coke demand. The coke purchase agreement is a tolling-style contract, with payments based on actual metallurgical coal costs plus a conversion fee. The tolling-style structure mitigates coal commodity price risk and improves revenue stability. The rating upgrade also reflects EES Coke's strong cash flow and restricted cash balances in recent reporting periods and debt service coverage of approximately 1.8 times over the remaining term of the debt. E[acute accent]EES Coke is an affiliate of DTE Energy Services, which is a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of DTE Energy Co. (senior unsecured debt rated 'BBB+' by Fitch). The EES Coke senior secured notes were issued in 1997 to finance the acquisition of National Steel Corporation's Coke Battery No. 5. Payments on the notes are made of revenues received by EES Coke from sales of coke and coke by-products. E[acute accent]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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