Moody’s Investor Services (“Moody’s”) today announced a change to Gold Fields Limited (“Gold Fields”) (JSE, NYSE, NASDAQ Dubai: GFI) Baa3 rating outlook to positive from stable.
Moody’s said: “The change in outlook was mainly prompted by Gold Fields’ continued progress in terms of further diversifying its production and EBITDA geographically and becoming less dependent on South Africa combined with our increased expectation that the company would also be able to maintain its conservative leverage of Net Debt to EBITDA below 1 time and positive free cash flow generation, even in a much lower gold price environment.”
Since March 2009, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (“S&P”) has maintained an investment grade rating on Gold Fields of BBB- with a stable
outlook.
Paul Schmidt, Chief Financial Officer of Gold Fields said: “We are pleased with the change in the rating outlook to positive by Moody’s. The change acknowledges Gold Fields increasing international diversification, solid operating margins, low financial gearing and conservative financial policy as well as our robust cash flow generation. We remain committed to maintaining our investment grade rating.”
