Standard and Poor's (S&P), the credit rating agency, issued a report of a credit facility for the power sector company Calpine before the company had finalised a loan. It placed Calpine's rating under review, saying that the company had signed a new $2 billion secured credit facility, the Financial Times reported, a facility that was news to Calpine itself. The statement from S&P was quickly withdrawn, but Calpine has complained about the error.
The error comes at a bad time for credit ratings agencies. Both S&P and Moody's Investors Services have come under criticism after the Enron failure. Critics have claimed that they do not fully understand energy trading groups. Both agencies have now marked down other similar companies such as Calpine and Dynegy, a move which has attracted further criticism as over-reaction.
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