DBRS Publishes Updated Methodologies for Project Finance and Canadian Municipal Governments

DBRS has today published updated versions of two methodologies:

-- Rating Project Finance
-- Rating Canadian Municipal Governments

The new project finance methodology is a substantial revision of the previous version and includes additional details and clarification on: (1) certain construction period structural enhancements; (2) certain legal aspects of special-purpose vehicles; (3) DBRS’s equity contribution expectations; and (4) certain commodity price (i.e., “merchant”) risks. In addition, there has been harmonization of certain aspects to the current DBRS Public-Private Partnership, Solar and Wind methodologies.

The only material change to the Canadian municipal government methodology is the addition of a short discussion of the analytical treatment of debt leveraged against long-term federal government grants (e.g., federal fuel tax grants).

Neither of the methodology updates has resulted in any rating changes or rating actions.

DBRS’s criteria and methodologies are publicly available on its website, www.dbrs.com, under Methodologies.

DBRS’s rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available at www.dbrs.com.