(Berlin, December 9, 2011) The rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has placed last night its long-term corporate rating of Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG) on CreditWatch with negative implications.
The credit of DB AG has been assessed at AA with a stable outlook so far. With the announcement as of today, S&P has removed the stable outlook and envisaged that the long-term rating may be lowered within a reassessment period of a maximum of 90 days. The current S&P rating of DB AG is therefore “AA/Watch negative”.
Today’s announcement of the reassessment of the rating by S&P followed the envisaged reassessment of the S&P sovereign rating of the Federal Republic of Germany published December 5, 2011. This linkage is due to DB AG’s characteristic as a government related entity according to the rating methodology of S&P, as the Federal Republic of Germany is the sole shareholder of DB AG.
S&Pʼs short-term rating of DB AG is unchanged in the highest category (“A-1+”). The releases of S&P and more details regarding the ratings of DB AG may be found on our IR Web site under www.db.de/rating-e.