S&P rates Wind Tre debt BB

S&P said it assigned its BB- long-term corporate credit rating to Wind Tre SpA and affirmed its BB- long-term corporate credit rating on Wind Tre's wholly owned funding subsidiary, Wind Acquisition Finance SA.

The outlook is stable.

The agency also affirmed its B issue rating on Wind Acquisition Finance's €1.75 billion and $2.8 billion senior unsecured notes. The recovery rating on these notes remains 6, indicating an expectation of negligible recovery (0%-10%; rounded estimate 0%) in the event of a default.

In addition, S&P assigned its BB issue rating to Wind Tre's senior secured debt, and affirmed its BB issue rating on Wind Acquisition Finance's senior secured debt. The recovery rating on both issues is 2, reflecting the expectations of substantial recovery (70%-90%; rounded estimate 85%) in the event of a payment default.

The agency also withdrew its long-term corporate credit rating on Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA, as the company no longer exists following the merger. S&P said it considers Wind Tre's business risk profile to be equivalent to that of the former entity.

“The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Wind Tre will leverage its larger scale and aggressively reduce costs in order to increase its absolute EBITDA, despite renewed and likely enduring competitive headwinds in the consumer mobile segment,” S&P said in a news release.

“It also reflects our anticipation of smooth execution of its networks integration and upgrade. We also anticipate positive FOCF, diminishing senior leverage, and EBITDA interest coverage of above 3x, which we think is commensurate with the rating.”

© 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.