Moody's lifts Gol

Moody's Investors Service said it raised the corporate family and senior unsecured ratings for Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA and Gol Finance to Ba3 from B1 reflecting improved operating performance and financial flexibility especially following the recent debt issuance.

The outlook is stable.

"The ratings upgrade reflects the company's continued commitment to improve its financial flexibility which was again demonstrated by yesterday's successful $300 million placement of unsecured debt securities due 2020 as well as the progress the company has made in reaching the targets for a potential upgrade, which we outlined in our last rating action," Moody's senior vice president Filippe Goossens said in a statement.

Gol has continued to show improvement in its operating margin and its leverage has been reduced to less than 6 times debt to EBITDA - and 5.8 times for the 12 months ended in March, according to the agency.

"The Ba3 rating now fully embodies the unique position in which Gol finds itself of operating in a country with enviable growth prospects at a time of considerable concern about the economic prospects of the developed world but also to be able to reap the benefits, for the time being, of a domestic market which while encouraging new competition, provides significant benefits to the two incumbents due largely to existing capacity constraints in the nation's infrastructure," the analyst said.

© 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.