Suspending, Withdrawing and Discontinuing Ratings

1. CI shall suspend an issuer’s ratings and the ratings of any obligations issued by it in cases where the information provided by the issuer either directly or through publicly available documents falls short of that required to adequately assess and monitor repayment capacity, but where there is a reasonable likelihood that the information required will be provided in the near future.

As a guideline, the “near future” may generally be interpreted as up to 3 months. However, ratings may be suspended for longer periods in cases where there is still a degree of cooperation with CI. If the information becomes available during the suspension period, CI shall resume analytical coverage and reconsider the ratings of the issuer and/or obligation.

A rating suspension does not imply that the entity is not servicing its debt obligations or that its financial position has deteriorated, but rather that it has failed to provide important information regarding, for example, its finances, liquidity or operations.

At the same time as suspending the ratings, CI shall review those ratings to ensure that they continue to provide a current opinion about the creditworthiness of the entity or obligation on a forward looking basis.

Ratings may also be suspended in cases where they have been assigned to an entity that is in the process of being created through the merger of other entities (usually rated entities and where there is sufficient information about the ownership, capital structure and organisation of the new entity to support a rating) but where the merger process is taking longer than expected. As a guideline the gap between the assignment of the rating and the creation of the new entity should be no more than 3 months. If the entity has not been created within this period the ratings should be suspended.

2. CI shall withdraw ratings in the following circumstances:

1. When requested to do so by the issuer unless CI considers there to be a market need for maintaining coverage and is able to obtain sufficient and timely information from public sources.
2. When an issuer within a reasonable period of time has not or does not intend to disclose information that is material to a credible assessment of its creditworthiness or the creditworthiness of a rated obligation issued by it (this includes cases where it ceases to cooperate with CI and there is insufficient publicly available information to support a rating).
3. When an issuer ceases to exist because it has been taken over, merged with other entities or has entered into bankruptcy.
4. When a rated obligation has been repaid in full.

As in 1. (above), the ratings should be reviewed and revised (if necessary) at the time of withdrawal.

3. CI may withdraw and discontinue ratings coverage for business reasons, including limited market interest relative to the resources required to maintain the ratings and changes in sector or geographical coverage.

4. Suspended ratings may be reinstated, but withdrawn or discontinued ratings may not. Any decision to resume coverage of an issuer whose ratings have been withdrawn will require a new rating assessment.

5. With the exception of obligations that are repaid in full, any decision to suspend, withdraw or discontinue the ratings of an issuer or obligation shall be published on the company’s website and the principal reason(s) for the decision explained.