Moody’s places South32 on review for ratings downgrade after Alcoa deal

Moody’s Ratings said on Friday it placed Australian miner South32’s credit ratings on review for downgrade after it agreed to sell most of its aluminum assets to Alcoa for as much as $5.6 billion.

“The divestment would materially reduce the company’s scale, commodity diversification and operating footprint, while removing assets that contributed around 37% of underlying earnings on average over the five fiscal years ended 2025,” the ratings agency said.

(By Christine Chen; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)