Venezuela Rating to Be Raised by S&P After Payment (Update1)

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) - Venezuela's credit rating will be raised to B from selective default by Standard & Poor's when the country makes next week a $329,300 payment that's four months overdue to bondholders, the credit rating company said.

S&P cut Venezuela's foreign debt rating on Jan. 18 from B, five levels below investment grade, saying the world's fifth- largest oil exporter failed to pay creditors $35 million that became due when the price of oil surged last year and triggered a payment clause in some of the country's bonds. Venezuela said on Jan. 29 that its preliminary calculations showed it owed nothing, then revised that today to say it owed $329,300.

``Venezuela will fulfill its obligation to bondholders when they make the payment, which will be in the first week of March,'' John Chambers, S&P's managing director of sovereign ratings, said in a telephone interview. ``Once they make the payment, we'll raise the rating.''

Chambers said S&P had gotten the $35 million estimate from the government last month. Jose Borges, the spokesman at Venezuela's Finance Ministry, declined to comment on whether the government had provided S&P with that estimate.

Bloomberg