Vale’s recent Brumadinho settlement of about $7 billion (BRL 37.68 billion) will likely reduce uncertainties over the company’s balance sheet, according to a report from credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings.
The credit rating agency said the deal would “ease” doubts on Vale’s capital structure, total fines and liabilities related from the dam disaster.
S&P said Vale may still be exposed to other potential costs and class action lawsuits. However, those “shouldn't be significant enough to cause leverage metrics to deviate from our base-case expectations.”
S&P labeled Vale’s debt to EBITDA ration as “comfortably below 1.5 times, with a strong cash position and smooth amortization profile.”