Leighton ’s BBB long-term credit rating, which Standard & Poor’s has placed on “credit watch" with negative implications, would be resolved after Grupo ACS reported half-year results, the ratings agency said yesterday. S&P is concerned ACS’s takeover of Hochtief, Leighton’s largest shareholder, will hurt the German company’s business and financing strategy. Any downgrade will be limited to one notch. Jenny Wiggins

Toll-road group Macquarie Atlas Roads said average traffic across its portfolio dropped 3 per cent in the June quarter compared with a year earlier because of weak economies in the US and UK. Traffic on the UK’s M6 was down 13 per cent. The group’s average revenue rose 1.6 per cent as it raised tolls.