DBRS Assigns Provisional BB (high) Rating to New Debt Issue of Sherritt International Corporation

DBRS has today assigned a provisional rating of BB (high) with a Stable trend to the senior unsecured notes (the New Senior Unsecured Notes) to be issued by Sherritt International Corporation (Sherritt or the Company). Sherritt indicates that it will use the proceeds from the notes issue to call and repay its outstanding $273.5 million of 7.875% senior unsecured debentures due November 26, 2012 (the 7.875% Notes) and for general corporate purposes. DBRS views Sherritt’s new debt issuance as a prudent funding initiative to resolve in a timely manner the Company’s need to fund the maturity of the 7.875% Notes, in light of potential ongoing uncertainty in commodity and financial markets over the coming months and, potentially, to help the Company supplement its existing financial resources as it seeks to complete its 40%-owned Ambatovy project in Madagascar.

The New Senior Unsecured Notes are being offered by way of a supplementary prospectus to the Company’s short form base shelf prospectus dated October 21, 2011, filed on SEDAR. They will rank equally with Sherritt’s other senior, unsecured indebtedness.

The provisional rating is based on DBRS’s review of a draft preliminary prospectus supplement to its short form base shelf prospectus dated October 21, 2011, as well as Sherritt’s public security document filings, including its Q2 2011 report, 2010 Annual Information Form and its 2010 annual report, and other information provided by Sherritt to DBRS as of October 25, 2011.

The assignment of final ratings is subject to receipt by DBRS of final documentation that is consistent with that which DBRS has already reviewed.

Notes:
All figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

The applicable methodology is Rating Mining, which can be found on our website under Methodologies.