(Bloomberg) -- A bellwether for China's listed tutoring firms suffered a credit rating downgrade, following a recent crackdown on the nation's private education firms.
New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc.'s score was cut to Baa3 from Baa1 by Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday. Baa3 is the lowest investment-grade rating, just one step away from junk territory at the credit assessor.
China unveiled curbs over the weekend that ban companies teaching school curricula from making profits, raising capital or going public -- a sweeping clampdown on such firms that counted the nation's big firms among investors. The move has added to a selloff across asset classes in Asian financial markets this week.
“The downgrade to Baa3 reflects New Oriental's significantly weaker business profile as a result of a regulatory change and implementation, which could materially worsen New Oriental's operating model, operations, business expansion, and capital-raising ability,” Moody's said in a statement.
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