DBRS Upgrades NBFM Toll-Based Debt to A (high), Stable Trend

DBRS Limited (DBRS) has today upgraded Tranche A and Tranche B of the Senior Toll-Based Debt (the Toll-Based Debt) of New Brunswick (F-M) Project Company Inc. (NBFM) to A (high) from “A”, both with Stable trends. This concludes the ratings review period that commenced on February 26, 2013, following the announcement that NBFM, New Brunswick Highway Corporation (NBHC), and the toll-based lenders intended to amend the concession agreement and debt documents to remove the traffic-counting element from the calculation of revenues payable to NBFM. The rating action reflects that the amendments made to the documents remove traffic volume from the payment mechanism, and henceforth, the Toll Based Debt will be serviced by NBHC, a Crown corporation, independent of traffic levels, availability or other performance risks. As such, the rating assigned to the Toll-Based Debt will be equivalent to that of the Province of New Brunswick.

Notes:
The related regulatory disclosures pursuant to the National Instrument 25-101 Designated Rating Organizations are hereby incorporated by reference and can be found by clicking on the link to the right under Related Research or by contacting us at info@dbrs.com.

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