Fitch affirms Finmeccanica

Fitch Ratings said it affirmed Finmeccanica S.p.A's senior unsecured rating at BBB and short-term rating at F2 following the announcement that the company has agreed to acquire AgustaWestland.

The outlook is stable.

Finmeccanica announced that it has reached an agreement with GKN plc to buy out the latter's 50% stake in a joint venture helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, of which it already holds the remaining 50% share. The acquisition should be completed by the end of 2004 and is subject to regulatory approvals. The total consideration is announced to be about €1.6 billion.

As anticipated by Fitch in its news release dated May 21, Finmeccanica expects to partly finance the acquisition by monetizing between 50 and 55 million shares of the stake it holds in Europe's largest semiconductor maker STMicroelectronics NV. At current market price this would represent a cash inflow of between €900 million and €1.0 billion. The remaining portion (€600 million to €700 million) will be financed through long-term debt.

Fitch estimates that Finmeccanica's pro forma net debt/EBITDA ratio following the AgustaWestland acquisition will be in the region of 1.4x, which is still consistent with the current ratings.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.