Danaos Corp’s dramatic debt reduction over past quarters has not gone unnoticed by finance industry professionals, with S&P Global Ratings (S&P) raising the company’s credit rating.

The global rating agency said in a statement on Friday it decided to lift the US-listed container ship owner’s rating by one notch to ‘BB+’ from ‘BB’.

That is just one scale shy of investment grade-rated securities in the S&P ratings universe.