Standard & Poor's downgrades Brazil's Invepar

Standard & Poor's downgraded the Brazilian infrastructure company Invepar on several fronts, after the company failed to go ahead with an overseas bonds issue plan to refinance debt.

S&P cut the credit rating to 'B' from 'BB-'.

"The downgrades reflect Invepar's inability to take the necessary measures throughout 2018 to refinance its debt at the holding company level, originally scheduled to mature on December 11, 2018," said the agency.

"Given the implications involved, which could ultimately result in a default on the group's obligations if it's unable to extend them, we revised our management and governance assessment to weak from fair," it added.

Last week, Invepar suspended plans to issue overseas bonds worth US$650mn, due to adverse capital market conditions. In October, when the company announced the bonds plan, it said the proceeds would be used to repay debts.

Invepar is owned by local engineering group OAS along with pension funds Previ, Petros and Funcef, each holding 25%.

The company holds the concessions for Brazil's busiest airport, Guarulhos International (pictured) in São Paulo state, and the Rio de Janeiro metro. It also has nine highway concessions, managing 1,975km of toll roads.