S&P cuts Paramount Global to junk

S&P said it downgraded its ratings for Paramount Global and its senior unsecured notes to BB+ from BBB-. The agency also lowered the company’s junior subordinated debt to BB- from BB.

The agency said it forecasts FOCF/debt will remain below 10% and that adjusted leverage will remain above 3.5x beyond 2025.

“We downgraded Paramount due to the degradation of credit metrics from the accelerating declines in linear media and the shift toward a more competitive and less certain streaming model. Paramount ended 2023 with S&P Global Ratings-adjusted leverage at 4.9x and FOCF/debt at 2% and both metrics have been outside of our threshold for the BBB- rating for the past two years since it began heavily investing in growing its streaming business,” S&P said in a press release.

The agency estimates Paramount Global’s S&P Global Ratings-adjusted leverage will decline toward 4x in 2024 and 3.6x by 2025, but for FOCF/debt to only reach 4% in 2024 and 6%-7% in 2025, under the 10% threshold.

The outlook is stable.

© 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.