Moody's rates Philip Morris A2/P-1

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned an A2 senior unsecured long-term issuer rating and a Prime-1 short-term issuer rating to Philip Morris International, a subsidiary of Altria Group, which will be spun off on March 28.

The agency assigned a Prime-1 rating to the company's $6 billion unsecured euro commercial paper and to the $6 billion commercial paper programs.

The outlook is stable.

Moody's said the A2 rating reflects the company's leading market position in five of the 10 largest cigarette markets in the world, excluding China and India, as well as the strength of its brand driven by the No. 1 premium brand Marlboro.

Ratings are constrained by the company's focus on the cigarette business, by the highly competitive nature of this segment of the consumer-products industry and the long-term decline of cigarette demand in many key places, the agency said.

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