New York, October 02, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") affirmed its ratings for Allegiant
Travel Company ("Allegiant"); Ba3 corporate family rating,
Ba3-PD probability of default rating, and Ba3 senior secured
rating; and assigned a Ba3 rating to the $150 million of new,
privately-placed senior secured notes due 2024. The company's
speculative grade liquidity rating was upgraded to SGL-2 from SGL-3.
The ratings outlook is negative.
The new senior secured notes will be secured on a pari passu basis with
Allegiant's existing Term Loan B, with a first priority lien
on all assets of the Company other than aircraft and Sunseeker Resorts,
Inc. The notes proceeds will bolster the company's liquidity.
The construction of the Sunseeker Resorts hotel located in Port Charlotte,
Florida has been suspended.
The affirmation of Allegiant's ratings considers its good liquidity
notwithstanding the broad and severe adverse impact of the coronavirus
on the aviation industry, and air passenger demand in particular.
Also supporting the ratings affirmations are Moody's belief that
Allegiant will experience a sooner and stronger recovery in demand than
most of its US peers because of its low cost, leisure focused,
US domestic operation and its broad geographic coverage. Moody's
also believes that there is strong potential for Allegiant to substantially
improve key credit metrics towards 2019 levels through 2023 if coronavirus
vaccines are broadly available in the US by the end of 2021.
The negative outlook reflects the potential for a resurgence of the coronavirus
through the winter that would further constrain passenger demand relative
to the current depressed level, which could pressure average daily
cash burn and weaken the company's liquidity cushion. The
pace and scope of the ultimate recovery of Allegiant's credit profile
could also be slowed versus Moody's current expectations.
The adverse impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the global economy,
oil prices and asset prices have sustained a severe and extensive credit
shock across many sectors, regions and markets. The combined
credit effects of these developments are unprecedented. The passenger
airline industry is one of the sectors most significantly affected by
the shock given its exposure to travel restrictions and sensitivity of
consumer demand to sentiment. Moody's regards the coronavirus pandemic
as a social risk under its ESG framework, given the substantial
implications for public health and safety.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The Ba3 corporate family rating reflects the financial benefits of Allegiant's
differentiated airline model that provides limited competition across
about 80% of its routes. Moody's expects Allegiant to continue
to achieve one of the strongest operating margins of the airlines it rates
following mitigation of the coronavirus. The re-making of
the fleet required an $800+ million debt-funded investment
for mostly used Airbus aircraft. Debt-to-EBITDA remained
below 3.5x during the investment period and was 2.7x at
the end of 2019.
FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS
The ratings could be downgraded if the pace of recovery of passenger demand
is slower than Moody's expects, additional sources of liquidity
become scarce, or the company is unable to strengthen credit metrics
through the recovery phase, indicated by debt-to-EBITDA
sustained above 3.75x, funds from operations + interest-to-interest
below 4x, EBIT margins approach 12%, or free cash flow
from airline operations is sustained below $100 million.
There will be no upwards rating pressure until passenger demand begins
a bonafide and sustained recovery towards pre-coronavirus levels,
Allegiant maintains liquidity above $400 million and key credit
metrics improve such as EBIT margin exceeds 15%, debt-to-EBITDA
declines towards 3x and funds from operations + interest-to-interest
is sustained above 5.5x.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Passenger Airline
Industry published in April 2018 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1091811.
Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of this methodology.
The following rating actions were taken:
Affirmations:
..Issuer: Allegiant Travel Company
.... Corporate Family Rating, Affirmed
Ba3
.... Probability of Default Rating,
Affirmed Ba3-PD
....Senior Secured Bank Credit Facility,
Affirmed Ba3 (LGD3)
Upgrades:
..Issuer: Allegiant Travel Company
.... Speculative Grade Liquidity Rating,
Upgraded to SGL-2 from SGL-3
Assignments:
..Issuer: Allegiant Travel Company
....Senior Secured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Assigned Ba3 (LGD3)
Outlook Actions:
..Issuer: Allegiant Travel Company
....Outlook, Remains Negative
Allegiant Travel Company, headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada,
is a publicly traded (NASDAQ: ALGT) operator of a low-cost
passenger airline marketed to leisure travelers in small cities,
selling air travel, hotel rooms, rental cars and other travel
related services on a stand-alone or bundled basis. In 2019,
Allegiant operated more than 450 routes across the US and served almost
15 million scheduled passengers, facing no direct competition on
about 80% of its routes. The company generated revenues
of approximately $1.84 billion in 2019 and $1.44
billion for the last twelve months ended June 30, 2020.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and
sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and
Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's
Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.
For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of
debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures
in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the
same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant
to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing
ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings
issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain
regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the
support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action
for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's
credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement
provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional
rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may
be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each
case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior
to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have
affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings
tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action,
and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action,
the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity.
Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures,
if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure
to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated
agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.
These ratings are solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy
for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on
its website www.moodys.com.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social
and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.
The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was
issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed
by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt
am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph
3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies.
Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's
office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued
the rating.
Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Jonathan Root, CFA
Senior Vice President
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Russell Solomon
Associate Managing Director
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653