Leading Chilean salmon farmers downgraded by Feller Rate

The ratuin gf service downgraded Multiexport from “BBB” to “B+,” and Invertec from “BBB-” to “B+.”

It also reduced the share rating of both companies from “First Class Level 4” to “Second Class.”

The agency downgraded both companies because of a decline in their financial profiles due to the significant drop in operating performance, especially in the last quarter of 2008, and their high level of debt.

“The significant decline in the industry’s sanitary condition in the last few months of 2008 because of the greater aggressiveness of the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus forced Multiexport, like the rest of the companies in the sector, to bring forward harvesting or eliminate fish in the farms affected, leading to large financial losses and negative operating flows,” the agency said.

Multiexport