{"id":93293,"date":"2013-12-09T13:12:33","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T11:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=93293"},"modified":"2013-12-09T13:12:46","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T11:12:46","slug":"sanral-maintains-negative-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/93293-sanral-maintains-negative-outlook.html","title":{"rendered":"Sanral maintains negative outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Moody's Investors Service\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1973-Moody-s\">Moody&#8217;s Investors Service<\/a> has confirmed the credit rating of the SA National Roads Agency Limited (<a title=\"Sanral\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1722-SANRAL-South-African-National-Roads-Association-Limited\">Sanral<\/a>), after the group implemented its controversial e-toll system on 3 December.<\/p>\n<p>Moody&#8217;s maintained a negative outlook for Sanral, having been placed under review for a downgrade in September.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The rating action has been prompted by the implementation of electronic tolling (e-tolling) on Sanral&#8217;s largest toll road, the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, on 3 December 2013,&#8221; Moody&#8217;s said.<\/p>\n<p>Moody&#8217;s said that e-tolls will enable Sanral to realize the additional toll revenue necessary to absorb cash-flow pressures emanating from its high operating costs (including debt service) and to reduce its borrowing needs.<\/p>\n<p>According to Sanral, GFIP e-tolls will increase its total toll revenue to R2.8 billion for the financial year ending 31 March 2014, from R2.1 billion at FYE2013.<\/p>\n<p>Sanral expects toll revenue to accelerate to R4.8 billion by FYE2015, Moody&#8217;s said.<\/p>\n<p>The implementation of e-tolling follows the Supreme Court of Appeal&#8217;s dismissed opposition to e-tolling on 9 October 2013.<\/p>\n<p>The court ruling was preceded by the signing into law of the Transport and Related Matters Amendment Bill, by President <a title=\"Jacob Zuma\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/2611-Jacob-Zuma\">Jacob Zuma<\/a> on 25 September 2013.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Negative outlook<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The ratings firm said that its negative outlook for Sanral incorporates the operational risks associated with e-toll collection.<\/p>\n<p>This, given the limited track record of the newly established method of collection, enshrined in the Transport and Related Matters Amendment Bill which is aimed at enhancing Sanral&#8217;s capacity to enforce payment of e-tolling fees.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Question marks<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An upgrade or stabilisation of the outlook will require evidence of Sanral&#8217;s capacity to realize adequate cash flows from its e-tolling operations, Moody&#8217;s said.<\/p>\n<p>A structural improvement in the company&#8217;s financial position, leading to lower than anticipated borrowing needs, could also apply upward pressure, it stressed.<\/p>\n<p>Moody&#8217;s warned that Sanral&#8217;s failure to maintain sufficient e-toll revenue collection, leading to deteriorating budgetary performance and growing borrowing needs, would apply downward rating pressure.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More news on Sanral<\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"Sanral CEO is today\u2019s PW Botha: DA\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/50590\/sanral-ceo-is-todays-pw-botha-da\/\"><strong>Sanral CEO is today\u2019s PW Botha: DA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"E-tolls are cheap for users: Sanral\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/49984\/e-tolls-are-cheap-for-users-sanral\/\"><strong>E-tolls are cheap for users: Sanral<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"E-tolls are not the end of the world: Sanral\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/50351\/the-world-will-not-end-because-of-e-tolls-sanral\/\"><strong>E-tolls are not the end of the world: Sanral<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moody&#8217;s Investors Service has confirmed the credit rating of Sanral, after the group implemented its controversial e-toll system on 3 December. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":340875,"featured_media":92957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[36,6525,9415,2072],"class_list":["post-93293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-active","tag-e-toll","tag-moodys-investors-service","tag-sanral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/340875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}