Standard & Poor's raises outlook to 'stable' for Reliance Industries, TCS and 8 others

Global ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Friday upped its outlook for Reliance Industries (RIL), Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and seven other Indian firms from negative to stable following similar action on India’s sovereign credit rating.

The rating agency — which revised its outlook on India from negative to stable — has revised the outlook for Reliance Industries to stable from negative while affirming the company's rating as BBB+, two notches higher than India's sovereign rating of BBB-.

“We revised the outlook on Reliance to reflect the reduced likelihood that we may lower our transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment following the sovereign action. We rate Reliance above the sovereign because of the company's large cash balance, the fact that most of the cash flows are linked to foreign currency, and our assessment that its stand-alone credit profile is bbb+,“ S&P said in a statement.

S&P has also revised the outlook on the foreign currency rating for IT major TCS to stable from negative while maintaining the company's long-term credit rating at A, which is four notches above the sovereign rating.

“TCS' global service-delivery capability, strong Ebitda margin, robust and stable cash flows, and net cash position enable the company to maintain positive liquidity under our hypothetical sovereign and T&C stress scenarios,” added S&P.

The rating action for TCS comes nine months after S&P had raised the latter's long-term rating credit up by two notches, from BBB+ to A, but had kept its outlook on foreign currency as negative during December 2013 review.

At the same time, S&P has raised the outlook on four government-run companies — ONGC, PowerGrid, NTPC, and NHPC — from negative to stable while affirming their long-term credit rating at BBB- to reflect their sensitivity to india’s sovereign credit rating. S&P added that it expects the government to maintain its majority ownership, and influence the business and financial strategy of these four companies.

The global rating agency also upgraded the outlook on four Indian government-related finance entities — Export Import Bank of India, India Infrastructure Finance Co., Indian Railway Finance and Power Finance Corporation — from negative to stable.