Key rating drivers involve Adventist's relatively weak financial profile andliquidity for the rating category, its high debt burden, and remarketing riskassociated with its variable-rate debt outstanding. Adventist's profitabilityand liquidity, while improving, remain low for Fitch's 'A' rating category asmany of Adventist's financial ratios have not kept pace with recentyear-over-year improvements in Fitch's medians Adventist's somewhat lightliquidity indicators at Dec. 31, 2008 (117.9 days-cash on hand, 10.4x cushionratio and 75.6% cash to debt) reflect Adventist's aforementioned heavy capitalspending. However, Adventist's liquidity indicators have benefited from aconservative investment allocation policy that includes less than 10% equities.Finally, as Adventist ends its heavy capital spending, Fitch expects to seebalance- sheet strengthening.

After this issuance Adventist will have close to $270.6 million in variable ratedebt backed by various LOC or standby bond purchase agreements (SBPA). Inmeetings with Fitch, Adventist's management seems cognizant of the heightenedrisk associated with failed remarketing of variable-rate debt and thenon-renewal of risk of its LOC/SBPA. Management contends that Adventist iscapable of meeting such payments from operations, as Adventist's cash spendingon capital projects is nearing its end. Management has also made efforts todiversify the credit enhancement and manage the term-out provisions of theliquidity facilities.

The Stable Rating Outlook is based on the expectation that Adventist willmaintain or improve operating performance as new facility renovations andexpansions are completed. Moreover, future debt issuance plans appear to beminimal as the level of capital spending moderates, allowing for improvement inbalance sheet and overall profitability. In fiscal 2008, Adventist had $2.1 billion in total revenues. Adventistcovenants to provide bondholders with quarterly and annual financial disclosurewithin 60 and 150 days, respectively, of each fiscal period end. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available onthe agency's public site, Published ratings, criteria andmethodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code ofconduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, complianceand other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code ofConduct' section of this site.

Fitch RatingsMichael Borgani, 415-732-5620 (San Francisco)James LeBuhn, 312-368-2059 (Chicago)Media Relations:Cindy Stoller, 212-908-0526 (New York)Copyright Business Wire 2009. May 4 (Reuters) - Keegan Resources Inc (KGN.TO) said itplans to raise about C$14.4 million ($12.21 million) by selling6 million shares to Dundee Securities Corp and a syndicate ofunderwriters. Stocks  |  Mergers & Acquisitions  |  IPOs  |  Global Markets As part of the offering, the company engaged in resourcesexploration will sell the shares at C$2.40 each, a discount ofmore than 5 percent to its Monday closing of C$2.54 on theToronto Stock Exchange. The underwriters, including Cannacord Capital Corp, ClarusSecurities Inc, Paradigm Capital Inc and Wellington WestCapital Markets Inc, have an option to purchase an additional900,000 shares for C$2.1 million, Keegan said in a statement. Keegan is the latest to join a growing list of Canadiancompanies that are raising money by selling their stock at adiscount. ($1=1.179 Canadian Dollar) (Reporting by Richa Dubey in Bangalore; Editing by Ratul RayChaudhuri) Stocks Mergers & Acquisitions IPOs Global Markets. Peabody Energy Completes Agreement for Peabody-Polo Resources Joint Venture inMongoliaST.

LOUIS, May 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) todayannounced that it has completed the acquisition of a 50 percent interest inPeabody-Polo Resources B.V., a joint venture that holds Polo ResourcesLimited's (AIM: PRL) Mongolian coal interests. Peabody has committed to aninvestment of $23 million.The joint venture holds coal licenses throughout Mongolia, with a significantnumber of licenses in the South Gobi region.Mongolia has substantialmetallurgical and thermal coal resources that are strategically located toserve high-demand China and Asia markets.The joint venture will continue its exploration activities with the goal ofidentifying properties and projects that can be developed to serve thesemarkets. Peabody continues pursuing multiple business developmentopportunities in Mongolia.Peabody also maintains warrants to acquire an approximate 15 percent equityinterest in Polo Resources Limited Peabody is the world's largest private-sector coal company Its coal productsfuel 10 percent of all U.S. electricity generation and 2 percent of worldwideelectricity.Polo is an emerging energy company focused on acquiring and developingadvanced stage coal and uranium properties in Asia and Australia.Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking as defined in thePrivate Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-lookingstatements are based on numerous assumptions that the company believes arereasonable, but they are open to a wide range of uncertainties and businessrisks that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations asof March 31, 2009. These factors are difficult to accurately predict and maybe beyond the company's control. The company does not undertake to update itsforward-looking statements.