Moody's affirms Abbott

Moody's Investors Service said it affirmed Abbott Laboratories' existing debt ratings. The outlook remains negative.

Ratings affirmed include Abbott's A1 senior unsecured notes, A1 industrial revenue bonds and Prime-1 short-term rating. Also included is Abbott Japan Co. Ltd.'s A1-backed senior unsecured notes.

Abbott's key credit strengths reflect its relatively large size and scale, diverse product portfolio and limited concentration risk, the agency said.

However, growing generic competition for several key Abbott and TAP products and recent setbacks in two late stage products - Xinlay and Simdax - could result in slower pharmaceutical growth in the future, the agency said.

The negative outlook is based on concerns that the additional leverage associated with the Guidant transaction reduces financial flexibility, highlighted by lower operating and free cash flow to debt ratios and significantly reduced cash coverage of debt.

© 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.