Jera Gains Rating Ahead of April Integration

Credit agency, Standard & Poors, has awarded Japanese commodity trader and utility, Jera, a long-term issuer rating of A- and a stable outlook, endorsing its "financial soundness," the latter said December 7.

The rating is to help it with "various business purposes, including diversification of funding sources," ahead of the business integration plan for next April.

That will be the third step of the process, where the existing domestic thermal power generation businesses of Jera's founders, Tepco and Chubu, are brought under one roof, in accordance with their February 2018 agreement. Replacing old coal and gas fired capacity and building new ones at home and abroad is one of its capital-intensive business objectives.