The Moody’s Ratings agency put review for a possible improvement the qualification of Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), after the announcement at the beginning of a strategic plan, with which it is intended that the state company lead to requiring the financial support of the Treasury by 2027.
“Moody’s Ratings (Moody’s) has placed the qualifications of Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), including the corporate family rating (CFR) of B3, the evaluation of the Base Credit Risk (BCA) of CA and the qualifications of senior chirographer bond bonuses backed by B3 of the existing notes of the company,” he said in a statement.
The qualifier also placed in revision upward the bond grades Senior Quirografarios backed by B3 of Pemex Project Funding Master Trust and those of the Senior Quirographic Bond program backed by (P) B3 of Pemex and Pemex Project Funding Master Trust, when it was previously of a negative perspective.
The review, argued Moody’s, responds to the ‘Strategic Plan of Pemex 2025-2035’, announced by the Mexican Government (negative BAA2) at the beginning of the month and the additional information published on the Strategic Plan of Pemex “to reduce financial debt levels and catch up with the payment of accounts payable.”
On July 29, the Mexican government issued bonds for 12,000 million dollars through an international issuance of pre-capitalized structured notes (P-CAPs), expiring in 2030, aimed at reinforcing the financial situation of Pemex.
Pemex is considered the most indebted oil company in the world, as its debt is around 99,000 million dollars, and suppliers, about 23,000 million dollars.
Moody’s stressed that Pemex, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) and the Ministry of Energy (SE), is executing a financing strategy under which Mexico will compromise future contributions similar to Capital to Pemex through the P-CAP structure of 12,000 million.
In addition to partially finance investments in the ‘UPSTREAM’ business through the Investment Fund for Pemex.
“The closure of the transactions is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2025, at which time we will conclude our qualification review,” said the rating.
He also said that additional details are expected to be published during the quarter, including the specifications of the Investment Fund for Pemex, which will be key to assessing their attractiveness to the private sector.
“The revision for improvement also reflects our expectation that the Government and Pemex announce, within the next two months, a plan to address the amortizations that expire at least at 2026 and 2027,” he said in a report.
He added that, unless structural measures are implemented to effectively reduce cash needs, the grades will be limited.
“Given the strong links with the Government of Mexico, the risk of governance is a factor to consider in the qualification action,” he said.
He pointed out that the Government promised to make future contributions similar to capital through a risk transfer structure for Pemex, which resulted in an improvement of the debt amortization calendar and the company’s liquidity profile.
He also proposed an investment fund, which is expected to help finance part of Pemex’s investment needs with the aim of reversing the fall in production in the next two to three years, according to Roxana Muñoz, Moody’s Senior Vice President of Credit Credit.
At the beginning of August, Pemex reported accumulated net benefits of 16,187 million pesos (about 857 million dollars) in the first half of 2025, as well as a financial debt that amounts to 98.8 billion dollars at the close of the same period.
With EFE information.
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