Moody?s Investors Service on Tuesday withdrew Baa2 issuer rating on Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T), India?s largest engineering and construction company by sales.
The rating carried a negative outlook prior to withdrawal. Moody?s said it has withdrawn this rating for business reasons.
Deepak Morada, a spokesperson of L&T told FE, ?This is actually a non-issue because we have no plans to issue bonds in the international market. We have got no paper rated by Moody?s, and hence, this was a joint decision by Moody?s and L&T as we do not require Moody?s ratings.?
L&T?s shares on Wednesday ended marginally up from the previous day?s close by 0.05% and closed at Rs 1,487.90 on the BSE.
Moody?s has said on its website that under certain circumstances, it will withdraw a rating for an issuer or an obligation for reasons unrelated to the adequacy of information, or bankruptcy or reorganisation status of the credit. When this occurs, Moody?s will balance the market need for a rating against the resources required to maintain and monitor a rating. Moody?s previous rating on L&T was on August 20, 2009, when it changed the outlook on the company?s Baa2 rating to negative. At that time, L&T?s consolidated debt had risen to Rs 18,400 crore from Rs 6,430 crore over the past two years. Before that, in its rating on October 4, 2007, Moody?s assigned it a first-time rating of Baa2 with a stable outlook.