Fitch Ratings - Hong Kong - 13 May 2022: Fitch Ratings has affirmed China Communications Construction Company Limited's (CCCC) Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and senior unsecured rating at 'A-'. The Outlook on the IDR is Stable.

CCCC is a leading transportation infrastructure construction company in China and was ranked as the world's fourth-largest engineering and construction (E&C) company by Engineering News-Record (ENR) in 2021. CCCC's parent China Communications Construction Group (CCCG) is fully owned by the state.

CCCC accounted for the majority of CCCG's revenue, profit, debt, cash and assets. The two entities also have substantial overlap in top management. Fitch used its Government-Related Entities (GRE) Rating Criteria to derive CCCC's rating, as we consider CCCG to be an intermediate holding company and "look through" CCCG to the China sovereign (A+/Stable).

Fitch scores CCCC at 27.5 points under its GRE Criteria, based on the government's incentive to provide support and the linkage with the government, and rates CCCC using a top-down approach. CCCC's IDR is notched down twice from the sovereign's IDR. The Stable Outlook reflects Fitch's expectation of continued state support for CCCC from the Chinese government.

We reassessed the company's Standalone Credit Profile (SCP) at 'bb-' from 'b' as we incorporate CCCC's strong access to funding with relatively low financing cost. The SCP also reflects CCCC's large operational scale, leading market positions and high leverage.