(Finance) – Moody’s has raised to Ba1 from Ba2 the long-term Corporate Family Rating (CFR) of Atlantia. At the same time, the rating agency updated the company’s senior unsecured ratings to Ba2 from Ba3 and the EMTN senior unsecured program rating to (P) Ba2 from (P) Ba3. The outlook is stable. Moody’s also updated to Ba1 from Ba2 the senior unsecured and backed senior unsecured rating and a (P) Ba1 from (P) Ba2 the rating of the EMTN (Senior Unsecured Euro Medium-Term Note) program of Autostrade per l’Italia (ASPI). In this case, the outlook is positive.
Finally, the rating agency has confirmed the Baa3 ratings senior unsecured and underlying senior secured and the EMTN (P) Baa3 senior unsecured program rating of Rome Airports (ADR). The outlook remains positive. There conclusion of the review and the update of the ratings of Atlantia and ASPI (launched on 22 October 2021) reflects the full effectiveness of the settlement agreement, as well as the concession addendum and the increased certainty regarding the sale of Atlantia’s stake in ASPI.
Atlantia
From the conclusion of the sale of the stake in ASPI, Atlantia will receive approx € 8.2 billion in the second quarter of 2022. Of this amount, Atlantia has already committed to spend respectively € 2 billion and € 0.95 billion in a share buyback program that will be finalized between 2022 and 2023 and in the acquisition of Yunex Traffic, announced on January 17, 2022.
“Although there is limited visibility at this stage on the use of the remaining € 5 billion of proceeds, Moody’s welcomes management’s commitment to invest in infrastructure assets that they would allow growth and diversification in line with the track record of the group “, is underlined by the rating agency.
In this context, the stable outlook envisages that Atlantia’s operating performance will remain solid and that future investment activities will maintain the group’s financial risk profile at least over time. The stable outlook also reflects the expectation that the group will maintain one good liquidity position.
ASPI
The ASPI upgrade benefits fromelimination of residual execution risks linked to the change of control of the company. The positive outlook reflects the possibility of a further rating update depending on the business strategy, capital structure, financial policy, targeted leverage and governance framework of the company, after the new shareholders have taken control of the company. society.
ADR
The assignment of ADR’s rating to Baa3 with a positive outlook continues to reflect the partial misalignment of ADR’s credit quality from that of the broader Atlantia group due to the standalone nature of ADR’s assets, its financing methods and some protections included in its contract granting. Despite Atlantia’s ratings update today, a certain degree of uncertainty about the prospects for the recovery of traffic in the medium term of ADR and the possibility that the ratio between operating funds (FFO) / debt of the company is equal to or greater than 15% by the end of 2023, a level commensurate with a higher rating.