The Griffin Group's Ric Stowe has affirmed his reclusive reputation by asking ratings agency Standard and Poor's to withdraw its debt ratings on his diversified private company, which has $US475 million of debt.
The announcement is below:
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today said that it had affirmed and withdrawn its 'B-/Negative/--' corporate credit rating on The Griffin Coal Mining Company Pty Ltd. (Griffin) and its 'B-' rating on Griffin's US$475 million 9.5% 144A notes maturing December 2016.
The withdrawal of the ratings, despite the outstanding US$475 million notes, reflects:
- A written request from the company to withdraw the ratings;
- The lack of sufficient publicly available information on the privately owned Griffin and associated companies; and
- Standard & Poor's access to financial information on Griffin was available only via a secure website to which we no longer have access.
For these reasons, Standard & Poor's is unable to maintain a rating on the company.
The 'B-' rating on Griffin, prior to its withdrawal, reflected the West Australian-based company's weak liquidity, limited financial disclosure due to its private-company status, limited mine and geographic diversity, ongoing capital-expenditure requirements, changing customer mix, and reliance on growth plans of key industrial customers.
These weaknesses were partly mitigated by the company's low-cost coal mining operations, strong market share and contracted relationships with key industrial customers, favorable proximity of mines to customers, long reserve life, and successful commissioning of the Bluewaters 1 Power Station.
Privately owned by the Stowe family, Griffin is one of only two coal mining companies in the state of Western Australia (AAA/Stable/A-1+).
