The rating agency left Contact at BBB/Stable/A-2 after the company announced an operating profit of $261million and turned around a reported loss last year of $167million to a $96million profit in the six months ended December.
S&P analyst Thomas Jacquot, in Sydney, said the operating profit was in line with expectations.
Debt reduction for the period was marginally below expectations, due in part to an increase in working capital as well as the front-loading of capital expenditure (capex) for the financial year.
During the first half, Contact incurred capex of $63million, more than half of the company's estimated total for the year of less than $100million.
The lower amount the company forecast for the second half should improve Contact's free cash flow and increase its debt repayments compared with the $21million net debt reduction during the first half, he said.
On that basis, S&P expected Contact's ratio of debt to operating profit to come in at or below three times for the full year ending June 30.
Concurrently with the half-year results, the company announced the launch of a domestic bond issue of up to $75million, with an ability to accept a further $25million.
The company would price the bonds on Friday and use the proceeds to repay the $100million bonds maturing in April
S&P rated the bonds BBB on February 7, in line with the corporate rating on the company, Mr Jacquot said.
