London, 16 April 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) assigned a B1 rating to the proposed
senior secured €150 million floating rate notes due 2025 issued by
Verisure Holding AB, a wholly owned subsidiary of Verisure Midholding
AB (Verisure). Verisure's B2 Corporate Family Rating (CFR),
B2-PD Probability of Default Rating and senior unsecured notes
ratings remain unchanged. The ratings of the existing senior secured
notes issued by Verisure Holding AB also remain unchanged. The
outlook remains stable.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The B1 rating of the proposed notes is in line with the existing senior
secured debt. Proceeds from the proposed issuance will be used
to repay drawings under the €300 million revolving credit facility
(RCF) that stood at €178 million as of 13 April 2020. The
largely leverage neutral transaction will strengthen Verisure's
liquidity.
The company's stable and resilient business model of providing home
alarm systems and monitoring for mostly residential customers will help
it cushion the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The main effect
of the outbreak on the company has been a greatly reduced ability to acquire
new customers. Moody's understands that there has been no
spike in the cancellation rate from the 3.4 million customers who
provide the company with a stable source of recurring monthly revenues.
Nonetheless, Moody's forecasts are under constant review to assess
the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the company's trading
performance, liquidity, and leverage.
ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE CONSIDERATIONS
Moody's regards the coronavirus outbreak as a social risk under our ESG
framework, given the substantial implications for public health
and safety.
Governance risks taken into consideration in Verisure's credit profile
include its ownership by private equity sponsors, who tend to have
aggressive financial policies favouring high leverage, shareholder-friendly
policies such as dividend recapitalisations and the pursuit of acquisitive
growth.
STRUCTURAL CONSIDERATIONS
The proposed €150 million notes will rank pari passu with the existing
senior secured debt and share the same security package. The B1
ratings of the senior secured debt instruments reflect the loss absorption
buffer from the unsecured debt instruments rated Caa1. As of 31
December 2019, there was €3.72 billion of outstanding
senior secured debt and €1.24 billion of unsecured debt instruments.
FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS
Positive rating pressure could develop if Verisure reduces its Moody's-adjusted
gross debt/recurring monthly revenue (RMR) to below 35x and increases
FCF (before growth spending)/debt to 10%, with FCF (after
growth spending) turning positive. Along with these metrics,
for an upgrade we would also require at least stable cancellation rates
and customer acquisition costs, and limited requirements for additional
debt financing and dividend payments.
Downward rating pressure could develop if Verisure's Moody's-adjusted
gross debt/RMR remains above 42x for a prolonged period or steady-state
cash flow generation trends towards zero, or if liquidity concerns
were to arise.
PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Business and Consumer
Service Industry published in October 2016 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1037985
. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page
on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.
Assignments:
..Issuer: Verisure Holding AB
....Senior Secured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Assigned B1
PROFILE
Headquartered in Versoix, Switzerland, Verisure Midholding
AB (Verisure) is a leading provider of monitored alarm solutions operating
under the Securitas Direct and Verisure brand names. It designs,
sells and installs alarms, and provides ongoing monitoring services
to residential and small businesses across 16 countries in Europe and
Latin America. The customer base consists of around 3.4
million subscribers as of February 2020. The company had 17,144
employees and reported revenues of €1.9 billion as of year-end
2019. The company was founded in 1988 as a unit of Securitas AB
and is currently majority owned by the private equity firm Hellman &
Friedman.
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 rating has been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s)
and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.
This rating is 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.
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.
Ramzi Kattan
Vice President - Senior Analyst
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service Ltd.
One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 5FA
United Kingdom
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454
Richard Etheridge
Associate Managing Director
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454
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