Moody's Updates Rating Methodology for Privately Managed Toll Road Industry.

Summary: Moody's Investors Service has published an updated Rating Methodology report

Moody's Investors Service has published an updated Rating Methodology report explaining its global approach for assessing

credit risk for companies in the privately managed toll roads industry.

This rating methodology replaces the Operational Toll Roads Methodology

published in December 2006.

The report, "Privately Managed Toll Roads" is now available on

www.moodys.com. Moody's subscribers can access this report via the link

provided at the end of this press release.

While Moody's updated methodology reflects many of the same core

principles as the 2006 methodology, this revised document incorporates

refinements in the rating agency's analysis that better reflect the

evolution of credit fundamentals of the industry and the rated universe.

No rating changes will result from the publication of this rating

methodology.

Moody's report includes a detailed rating grid and illustrative examples

that compare the mapping of rated companies against the factors in the

grid. The grid is a reference tool that can be used to approximate credit

profiles within the privately managed toll roads sector in most cases.

The grid provides summarized guidance for the factors that are generally

most important in assigning ratings to companies in the privately managed

toll roads sector. However, the grid is a summary that does not include

every rating consideration.

The grid contains five factors that are important in Moody's assessments

for ratings in the toll road sector: Asset Type and Service Area,

Traffic Profile and Performance Trends, Concession and Regulatory

Framework, Financial Policy, and Coverage and Leverage. The sixth factor

is a notching adjustment for structural considerations.

The weights shown for each factor in the grid represent an approximation

of their importance for rating decisions, but actual importance may vary

substantially. In addition, the illustrative mapping examples in the

revised document typically use historical financial metrics while ratings

are based on our forward-looking expectations. As a result, Moody's does

not expect the grid-indicated rating to match the actual rating of each

company.

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