Rating risk

Moody’s confirmed a Baa1 rating for Snam’s long-term debt on 18 February 2014, raising the outlook from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’. The revised outlook came after a similar decision was taken on 14 February with regard to Italian sovereign debt.

On 11 July 2013, rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Snam’s long-term credit rating by one notch, from A- to BBB+.

This followed a one-notch downgrade of Italy’s national sovereign debt rating on 9 July 2013 (from BBB+ to BBB with a negative outlook).

Snam’s long-term rating is a notch higher than that of Italian sovereign debt. Based on the methodology adopted by the rating agencies, the downgrade by a notch of the current rating of the Italian Republic would trigger a downward adjustment of Snam’s current rating by at least a notch.