Debt Rating Lowered for Micropolis Corp.

Micropolis Corp.’s “significantly diminished” cash levels have led Standard & Poor’s to lower its rating of Micropolis’ convertible subordinated debentures--a type of debt security--to triple-C from single-B-minus.

Micropolis is a Chatsworth-based maker of computer disk drives that has been struggling for the past year. The upshot of S&P;’s action is that, should Micropolis borrow money in the future, it likely would have to pay a higher interest rate to compensate investors for the perceived increased risk of the company’s ability to repay its debts.

In announcing the rating cut, S&P; noted there “are no assets to be sold and no operations that could easily be spun off to raise cash,” and that its new rating assumes “that alternate sources of liquidity will become available beginning in 1990.”