Parana Gets Baa3

Moody’s has assigned a Baa3 rating to the Brazilian state of Parana, it says. The rating joins previous BBB minus/BBB minus marks. Moody’s highlights the state’s improving revenues and declining debt levels. “Considering capital revenues and expenditures Parana has recorded roughly balanced results. Fiscal outcomes have been mainly positive averaging 3.6% of total revenues and only recording a very small deficit in 2012 of 0.5%,” Moody’s says. The outlook is stable. The state has been mentioned as a candidate to follow Minas Gerais into the international debt markets using the pass-through note format to bypass federal restrictions on Brazilian states issuing international bonds directly. In March, the Brazil Minas (BBB/Baa3) SPE vehicle raised $1.27bn from the sale of 2028 bonds backed by a loan from bookrunner Credit Suisse.