Birla Carbon faces corporate family rating due to credit profile woes

Moody's Investors Service Monday said it has downgraded Birla Carbon's corporate family rating, reflecting the weakening in the company's credit profile, due to aggressive financial policy. "Moody's Investors Service has downgraded SKI Carbon Black (Mauritius) Limited's (Birla Carbon) corporate family rating to Ba3 from Ba2. The outlook is stable," it said in a statement.

Moody's Vice-President and Senior Credit Officer Kaustubh Chaubal said the rating downgrade reflects the weakening in Birla Carbon's credit profile, due to its aggressive financial policy, as seen by its just-concluded debt-financed acquisition of a trading company. Birla Carbon acquired a 100 per cent stake in Swiss Singapore Overseas Enterprises Pte Ltd for USD 450 million from a family-owned company of the Aditya Birla Group.

The company had also upstreamed USD 600 million in the form of loans to its shareholders over the past 12 months.