Fri January 9, 2004 04:11 PM ET
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NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s on Friday said they may cut the top ratings for Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) (SHEL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) , after Shell on Friday cut by 20 percent its estimates of how much oil and gas it was certain it could profitably extract from its fields.
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Investors reacted to Shell’s announcement by criticizing management and punishing the company’s share price, which fell more than 7 percent.
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Both Moody’s and S&P affirmed their short-term ratings for Shell.
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But Moody’s said it may cut the group’s “Aaa” long term ratings, while S&P said it may cut the group’s “AAA” ratings, which in both cases are the highest possible ratings.
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Many western oil companies are struggling to find new oilfields to replace maturing ones, which is crucial to assuring future earnings growth.
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But in recent years, investors have perceived Shell as lagging in adding new fields.


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