Fitch Downgrades Urbi

Fitch has downgraded Mexican homebuilder, Urbi Desarrollos Urbanos (Urbi) to BB- from BB on a local scale, with a stable outlook. The downgrade is due to an increase in the company’s debt to cover high working capital costs from its aggressive growth strategy, says Fitch. The company’s total debt increased to MXP10.9bn by the end of December 2010 from MXP7.7bn in December 2009. The company’s EBITDA remained relatively stable at MXP4.1bn by the end of 2010, says Fitch. Gross leverage was 2.7x by the end of December 2010, compared to1.9x by the end of December 2009.