S&P might upgrade VEON

S&P said it placed its BB long-term issuer credit rating on VEON Ltd. on CreditWatch with positive implications.

The agency also put the BB long-term issuer credit ratings of VEON Holdings BV and Vimpel-Communications PJSC on CreditWatch positive.

S&P also placed the BB issue rating on the group's senior unsecured debt on CreditWatch positive.

The CreditWatch placement follows VEON's announcement that it has agreed to sell CK Hutchinson Holdings its 50% stake in Wind Tre for €2.45 billion, the agency explained.

It comes despite VEON's offer to increase its stake in Global Telecom Holding SAE by taking over those of Global Telecom's assets in Pakistan and Bangladesh that were already consolidated into VEON, S&P said.

VEON plans to use about $2.4 billion of the proceeds from the sale of its stake in Wind for debt repayment and about $400 million to acquire the Global Telecom assets in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

“In our view, VEON will see a material reduction in leverage once these transactions close,” the agency said in a news release.

“Management estimates that leverage will improve by about 0.7x as a result of the transaction; it estimates a pro forma reported net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of about 1.8x (compared with 2.4x prior to the transaction).”

© 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.