MOSCOW, September 28 (RIA Novosti) - Moody's has downgraded Russia-based metals and mining company Evraz Group S.A.'s rating to B1 from Ba3, with a negative outlook, the international rating agency said on Monday.
The rating of the company's $2.75 bln senior unsecured debt with maturities in 2013, 2015 and 2018 was lowered from B2 to B1, with a negative outlook, Moody's said in a statement.
Moody's placed the company's ratings on Rating Watch Negative on June 8. The rating agency's decision to downgrade the ratings of Evraz Group is based on the company's financial performance in the first half of 2009, the statement said.
Evraz Group S.A. announced on September 1 a net loss under International Financial Reporting Standards of $999 million for the first half of 2009 against a $2 billion net profit in the same period last year.
The company's revenues declined 56.7% in the reporting period to $4.6 billion.
Evraz said that $833 million of the loss was due to a change in accounting policies, without which the company would have posted a $166 million loss.
Consolidated adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) declined 87.4% in the reporting period to $468 million, the company's loss from operations reached $1 billion and gross profit fell 92% to $342 million.
The Russian company has three steel-making subsidiaries in Siberia. The company's presence in North America is represented by its subsidiary Evraz Inc. NA, uniting Oregon Steel Mills, Claymont Steel, and Ipsco's Canadian plate and pipe business.
Evraz Group also controls the Dnepropetrovsk Iron and Steel Works in Ukraine, Evraz Palini e Bertoli in Italy, Evraz Vitkovice Steel in the Czech Republic, and Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation in South Africa.
