Hanwha Ocean, Corporate Credit Rating Upgraded to 'BBB+'

Positive Signal in Corporate Bond Demand Forecast

Hanwha Ocean announced on the 15th that its corporate credit rating (ICR) by Korea Ratings had been upgraded from 'BBB0 (Positive)' to 'BBB+ (Stable)'. At the end of last year, NICE Credit Rating also upgraded Hanwha Ocean's corporate credit rating by one notch to BBB+ (Stable).

Yonhap News

Korea Ratings cited the expansion of new orders for LNG carriers, Hanwha Ocean's main business, the quantitative and qualitative improvement of its order backlog, the reduction of low-price orders, and increased sales and profitability due to higher production volume as the main reasons for the rating upgrade.

As of the end of September, Hanwha Ocean's order backlog stood at 27.3 trillion KRW, and the proportion of high-priced production is expected to remain high in 2025, leading to continuous profitability improvement.

Hanwha Ocean plans to issue public corporate bonds for the first time in 9 years and 8 months since 2015, intending to use the proceeds to repay short-term borrowings.

Following the upgrade of the corporate bond rating and outlook, the short-term credit rating for commercial paper held by the company was also raised by one notch from ‘A3’ to ‘A3+’.