Fitch Affirms Chile’s Masisa

Fitch has affirmed the BBB- foreign and local currency IDRs and A national scale ratings of Chilean board products manufacturer Masisa with a negative outlook due to the company’s high leverage for the rating category. During 2007 and the first quarter of 2008, Masisa has initiated a number of transactions that are designed to lower leverage significantly. However, none of these transactions have closed. In 2008, Masisa’s Ebitda should increase to more than $215m, despite the potential loss of $4m of Ebitda due to the sale of the company’s oriented strand board plant in Brazil and the weakness in the US housing market, the agency says.