OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has downgraded Tonon Bioenergia S.A's (Tonon) foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to 'D' from CC'. At the same time, Fitch has downgraded to 'C/RR4' from 'CC/RR4' the rating to the USD289 million unsecured notes due 2020 (effective July 29, 2015), and the rating on the remaining USD11 million senior unsecured notes due 2020 and USD230 million senior secured notes due 2024. All related debts have been issued by Tonon's fully-owned subsidiary Tonon Luxembourg S.A. A full list of ratings actions follows at the end of this release.

KEY RATING DRIVERS
These rating actions follow the announcement by Tonon that it has filed for bankruptcy protection in Brazil. This announcement will result in payment default on some or all of Tonon's debt and result in a debt renegotiation.

KEY ASSUMPTIONS
Fitch believes the Brazilian court will accept Tonon's filings.

RATING SENSITIVITIES
An upgrade is unlikely in the near term given the group's bankruptcy protection filing.

LIQUIDITY
Tonon had BRL110 million of cash and cash equivalents as of Sept. 30 2015. This compares with BRL2.8 billion of total debt, of which approximately BRL285 million was short-term. Its short-term assets also included BRL77 million of inventories, BRL63 million of accounts receivables, and BRL31 million of advances to suppliers. The company's long-term assets include BRL808 million of sugarcane plantations and BRL556 million of PPE, which primarily consists of three mills with sugarcane crushing capacity of 9.4 million tons per year. The company does not own relevant land assets.

FULL LIST OF RATING ACTIONS

Fitch has downgraded the following:

Tonon Bioenergia S.A.
--Foreign currency IDR to 'D' from 'CC';
--Local currency IDR to 'D' from 'CC'.

Tonon Luxembourg S.A.

--USD289 million senior unsecured notes, due 2020, to 'C/RR4' from 'CC/RR4';
--USD11 million senior unsecured notes, due 2020, to 'C/RR4' from 'CC/RR4'.
--USD230 million senior secured notes, due 2024, to 'C/RR4' from 'CC/RR4'.