FBCL Maintains Its Strong Standard & Poor’s Rating.
The Federal Bridge Corporation Limited (FBCL) is pleased to announce that Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Global Ratings has maintained its 2020 FBCL long-term issuer credit and senior unsecured debt ratings with an ‘A+’, reaffirming the strategic framework governing FBCL operations. The news from S&P was tempered as their outlook for the Corporation remained “negative”, as they had noted from their April 2020 update.
FBCL Chief Executive Officer, Natalie Kinloch, favourably received the affirmation of this strong rating and said, “This is good news given that their stated outlook is mainly a reflection of an operating environment impacted by a global pandemic, rather than of our administration of the business. S&P continues to endorse our approach and underscores that FBCL is effectively managing the factors that it can influence. Despite the restrictions to non-essential cross-border traffic resulting from the global pandemic, our prudent planning and management of spending have resulted in an “A+” rating.”
S&P concluded that “FBCL’s very strong management and governance characteristics have allowed it to achieve financial and operational goals. We believe the management team has considerable expertise and experience. It proactively adjusts operating and capital spending to minimize the impact of traffic volatility on its financial profile and monitors performance against its budgets. We believe management is reacting quickly to current adverse economic conditions by reducing discretionary operating expenditures where possible and deferring capital spending. Furthermore, management has policies and strategies to mitigate key risks, including debt management, cash and investment management, and a suite of insurance policies.”
FBCL owns, manages and operates international bridges and associated structures in Sault Ste. Marie, Point Edward, Lansdowne (Thousand Islands) and Cornwall, Ontario. FBCL’s mandate is to provide the highest level of stewardship so that its international bridges and associated structures are safe and efficient for users.