S&P has announced:
it lowered its long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on Toronto-based Loblaw Companies Ltd. by one notch, to ‘BBB+’ from ‘A-‘. Standard & Poor’s also lowered its long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on parent company George Weston Ltd. by one notch, to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB+’. In addition, the Canadian scale CP rating on George Weston was lowered to ‘A-2’ from ‘A-1(Low)’, and the preferred stock rating on George Weston was lowered to ‘P-3(High)’ from ‘P-2(Low)’. At the same time, the ratings on both companies were removed from CreditWatch with negative implications, where they were placed Feb. 8, 2007, following Loblaw’s much weaker-than-expected earnings in the fourth quarter (ended Dec. 30, 2006). The outlook on both companies is stable.
This follows the earlier downgrade of Loblaw by DBRS, who have not yet announced a decision regarding Weston, and the Credit Watch Negative announcement by S&P.
Weston has the following preferred issues outstanding: WN.PR.A WN.PR.B WN.PR.C WN.PR.D & WN.PR.E
Why does the HIMIPref summary screen show the WN issues as P2(low)?
Because DBRS still rates them as Pfd-2(low). They are on credit watch negative, but no decision has been made.
Note that HIMIPref uses only DBRS ratings since these are more comprehensive. A future data improvement may (may!) incorporate other rating agencies in the valuation process.