PRESS RELEASE: Fitch Affirms RATP At AAA; Off Watch Negative
Friday November 28th, 2008 / 15h28
Fitch Ratings-Paris/London-28 November 2008: Fitch Ratings has today affirmed RATP's (Regie Autonome des Transport Parisiens) Long-term Issuer Default rating (IDR) and senior unsecured rating at 'AAA', and Short-term IDR at 'F1+'.The Long-term IDR is removed from Rating Watch Negative (RWN), where it was placed on 18 April 2008. The Outlook on RATP's Long-term IDR is now stable. The removal of the RWN follows an in-depth review of the implications of the European Union regulation on public passenger transport services, which comes into force in December 2009. In Fitch's view the new regulation will have a very limited impact on RATP in the short to medium term, which justifies a return to a Stable Outlook. Although RATP will not comply with the definition of an "internal operator" that would fully protect it from competition, only new services will be subject to a gradual opening to competition from December 2009 (with a transition period of up to ten years). Existing transport services, which represent the bulk of RATP's activity, will not face competition for a transition period of up to 30 years. Fitch estimates that this transition period, which will be set by the French lawmakers, is likely to be in excess of 10 years. This pushes potential exposure to competition beyond the rating horizon. However, investors should be aware that very long-dated debt could be exposed. RATP is the main public transport operator of the Paris region, which accounts for 95% of its turnover. It also aims to compete in providing transport in other French regions and abroad. However, these activities have been undertaken through commercial subsidiaries that act as pure operators and that have thus negligible debt levels. In this context, Fitch understands that support from the French state for RATP would not create any significant distortion in competition, thus mitigating the risk that such support from the state would be qualified as illegal state aid under EU regulations. As a consequence, Fitch believes that RATP will continue to fully benefit from an implicit guarantee from the French state due to its status of Etablissement Public a Caractere Industriel ou Commercial (EPIC) and that RATP would receive timely support from the state in case of need. Contact: Nicolas Painvin, Paris, Tel: +33 1 44 29 91 28; David Diano, Paris, Tel: +33 1 44 29 91 79. Media Relations: Francoise Alos, Paris, Tel: +33 1 44 29 91 22, Email: francoise.alos@fitchratings.com; Peter Fitzpatrick, London, Tel: + 44 (0)20 7417 4364, Email: peter.fitzpatrick@fitchratings.com. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use 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 are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=AhwCpQQ0pWKzJrCNi%2Bzc7w%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
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