Moody’s: Prime-2 short-term to Ahold Delhaize

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a Prime-2 short-term issuer rating to Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize NV (Ahold Delhaize).

Ahold Delhaize's existing ratings and outlook are unchanged.

Moody’s said the Prime-2 short-term issuer rating reflects Ahold Delhaize's strong liquidity profile supported by €2.8 billion of cash and cash equivalents of as of April 2, after deducting €1.1 billion related to cash pooling and a €1 billion multi-currency syndicated credit facility maturing in 2022, of which €140 million are drawn.

While this facility is committed and contains no material adverse effect language, it is subject to a financial covenant that requires the company to maintain a leverage ratio of less than 4 times, in case the corporate ratings of S&P and Moody's fall below BBB and Baa2, respectively, the agency explained.

Moody's said it does not see any meaningful refinancing risk in the coming years, as the most significant maturity of the next 24 months is the repayment of a €400 million bond due in October 2018.

In 2017, free cash flow generation will suffice to finance shareholder remuneration, namely a €1 billion share buyback program and a €700 million dividend.

© 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.