International ratings agency Moody's Investors Service has downgraded all ratings for the Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras.
These include a downgrade of the company's senior unsecured debt to Ba2 from Baa3, and assigned a Ba2 Corporate Family Rating (CFR) to the company. Moody's also lowered the company's Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA) to b2 from ba2.
A representative for Moody's said these rating actions reflected increasing concern about corruption investigations and liquidity pressures that might result from delays in delivering audited financial statements, as well the expectation that the company will be challenged to make meaningful reduction in its very high debt burden over the next several years.
Petrobras is currently embroiled in a corruption scandal, where kickbacks and political bribes allegedly occurred, costing the company billions.