Fitch lowers Thai Beverage view to negative

Fitch Ratings said it revised Thai Beverage PCL's outlook to negative from stable and affirmed its long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating at BBB-, national long-term rating at AA(tha) and its senior unsecured rating at AA(tha).

The negative outlook reflects risks to the pace of the company's de-leveraging, which has been slower than previous forecasts due to weak domestic demand for alcoholic beverages in the fiscal year that ended September 2018 following a series of acquisitions in the first quarter of 2018 that raised leverage, Fitch said.

The agency said it now expects ThaiBev's net leverage to remain high at around 4.5x to 5.5x in through 2021, compared with an earlier forecast of 4x by 2021.

ThaiBev has demonstrated its commitment to prioritizing debt reduction and maintaining a conservative capital structure after large debt-funded acquisitions, Fitch said.

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