S&P puts Omnicom on watch

Standard & Poor's said it placed Omnicom Group Inc.'s A- corporate credit rating on CreditWatch with negative implications and affirmed its A-2 short-term ratings.

"The CreditWatch placement is based on our view that the company's leverage will likely rise further beyond our threshold for Omnicom at an A- rating as a result of weak ad demand, and is unlikely to return within our threshold over the next one to two years," S&P analyst Heather Goodchild said in a statement.

"We are also concerned about Omnicom's overall funding flexibility as a result of recent and potential debt puts."

Lease- and pension-adjusted gross debt-to-EBITDA ratio before equity compensation was an estimated 2.8x, well above the agency's low-2x threshold for Omnicom at this rating, S&P noted.

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