Approximately $10 billion of debt securities affected
Toronto, November 05, 2014 -- Moody's Investors Service affirmed the Baa2 senior unsecured ratings of
Barrick Gold Corporation (Barrick) and all rated subsidiary issuers guaranteed
by Barrick. The outlook remains negative.
RATINGS RATIONALE
"We affirmed Barrick's ratings at Baa2 because we expect the
company will continue to take aggressive steps to reduce its sizeable
debt burden to offset pressures arising from declining cash flows in the
current, lower, gold price environment", said
Darren Kirk, Moody's vice president and senior credit officer.
Barrick's Baa2 senior unsecured rating is underpinned by the company's
flexibility to manage through a prolonged period of gold price weakness
given its large scale, diverse and low-cost gold assets,
sizeable copper operations, relatively favorable geopolitical risks
and excellent liquidity. The rating incorporates Moody's
expectation that Barrick will undertake asset sales or other deleveraging
transactions to reduce its adjusted financial leverage towards 3x through
2015 from a range of between 3.25x to 4x that would otherwise occur,
incorporating average gold price sensitivities of $1,200/oz
to $1,100/oz. Moody's believes Barrick could
restrain its capital expenditures to maintenance levels and achieve breakeven
free cash flow at a gold price as low as $1,100/oz but that
the low capex will eventually cause its gold production to decline.
This could begin to occur as early as 2017 in Moody's estimate,
resulting in falling organic cash flows and rising leverage in this timeframe
unless the gold price rebounds.
Moody's views Barrick's liquidity as excellent. The
company maintains about $2.7 billion in cash of which Moody's
estimates about $1.5 billion is surplus and freely available
and an undrawn $4 billion revolver (matures 2019) compared to mandatory
debt repayments of $200 million through 2015 (and an aggregate
of $900 million through 2017). Moody's expects that
Barrick will produce breakeven free cash flow over the next year and maintain
good headroom to its consolidated tangible net worth covenant in its bank
credit facility ($7.3 billion at Q3/14 versus a minimum
of $3 billion).
The negative ratings outlook incorporates execution risks associated with
Barrick's plans to reduce its debt as well as the risk of deteriorating
credit metrics should the gold price be sustained below $1,200/oz.
An upgrade would require Moody's to expect Barrick's operating
cash flows would be able to fund the necessary investments to achieve
at least stable production over time as well as sustained Debt/ EBITDA
below 2x and (CFO less dividends)/debt above 35%.
Barrick's rating could be downgraded if Moody's loses confidence
in Barrick's ability or willingness to reduce its leverage.
A downgrade could occur if Debt/ EBITDA would likely be sustained above
3.25x and (CFO less dividends)/debt below 20%.
Affirmations:
..Issuer: Barrick Gold Corporation
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Affirmed at Baa2
..Issuer: Barrick (PD) Australia Finance Pty Ltd
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Affirmed at Baa2
..Issuer: Barrick Gold Finance Company
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Affirmed at Baa2
..Issuer: Barrick International Bank Corp.
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Affirmed at Baa2
..Issuer: Barrick North America Finance LLC
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Affirmed at Baa2
..Issuer: Placer Dome Inc.
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Affirmed at Baa2
Outlook Actions:
..Issuer: Barrick Gold Corporation
....Outlook, remains Negative
..Issuer: Barrick (PD) Australia Finance Pty Ltd
....Outlook, remains Negative
..Issuer: Barrick Gold Finance Company
....Outlook, remains Negative
..Issuer: Barrick International Bank Corp.
....Outlook, remains Negative
..Issuer: Barrick North America Finance LLC
....Outlook, remains Negative
..Issuer: Placer Dome Inc.
....Outlook, remains Negative
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Global Mining Industry
published in August 2014. Please see the Credit Policy page on
www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt 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 rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular
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 rating action, and
whose ratings may change as a result of this 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.
Moody's has not provided advisory services but may have provided
Ancillary or Other Permissible Service(s) to the rated entity, its
related third parties and/or the party that requested the rating within
the past two years (including during the most recently ended fiscal year).
Please see the special report "Ancillary or other permissible services
provided to entities rated by MIS's credit rating agency in Canada"
on the ratings disclosure page www.moodys.com/disclosures
on our website for further information.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
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.
Darren M. Kirk
Vice President - Senior Analyst
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's Canada Inc.
70 York Street
Suite 1400
Toronto, ON M5J 1S9
Canada
(416) 214-1635
Donald S Carter
MD - Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Group
(416) 214-1635
Releasing Office:
Moody's Canada Inc.
70 York Street
Suite 1400
Toronto, ON M5J 1S9
Canada
(416) 214-1635
Moody's affirms Barrick's Baa2 rating; outlook remains negative