New York, February 23, 2021 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has assigned
a Baa2 senior unsecured rating to Fidelity National Information Services,
Inc.'s ("FIS") proposed senior unsecured notes offering.
The net proceeds from the offering will be used to redeem existing senior
unsecured notes.
The following rating actions were taken:
Assignments:
..Issuer: Fidelity National Information Services,
Inc.
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Assigned Baa2
RATINGS RATIONALE
FIS is a leading global diversified financial technology company,
operating in merchant acquiring (30% of 2020 net revenue),
banking technology solutions (47% of revenue) and capital markets
technology solutions (19% of revenue). Each of the company's
businesses benefits from strong competitive positioning with leading market
share. The Merchant Solutions division is a leading international
vertically-integrated payment processor, with a highly diversified
customer base including e-commerce merchants, large multi-lane
retailers (including 15 of the top 25 national retailers by revenue in
2019 in the US) and SMB merchants. The Banking Solutions division
is a leading technology provider to global financial institutions,
regional and community banks, benefitting from strong cloud and
digital banking capabilities. The Capital Markets Solutions division
is a leading global technology provider to brokerage and securities firms,
asset managers and other capital markets participants, differentiated
by breadth of integrated solutions. While competition in many business
lines has intensified, we believe FIS is well positioned to sustain
leading competitive positions over the medium-term.
FIS' revenue decline of only 1.7% in 2020 is illustrative
of the stability and recurring nature of many of its business lines,
support from positive secular growth trends such as cash displacement
and digital banking, and synergies from the Worldpay acquisition
completed in 2019. Merchant Solutions has been impacted by the
broadly weak volumes in 2020, but is likely to return to solid growth
in 2021 driven by e-commerce and partial recovery in T&E and
SMB volumes. Banking Solutions continued to grow in 2020 due in
part to the deeply integrated and essential services it provides to customers,
and is poised to benefit in 2021 from the pandemic-induced strong
demand for digital banking and cost-efficient outsourcing solutions.
Capital Markets has sustained low-single-digit growth supported
by the customer shift to cloud-delivered services but constrained
by lower large license sales. With support from merger synergies,
we project total EBITDA growth of 13% in 2021.
FIS' leverage is temporarily elevated following the acquisition of Worldpay,
with Moody's-adjusted total leverage at 3.8x in December
2020. The company has committed to reduce Moody's-adjusted
total leverage below 3.0x, and intends to complete this deleveraging
by the end of 2021. Free cash flow reduced by the common dividend
and integration and other one-time costs was $1.6
billion in 2020, and we project growth to $2.2 billion
in 2021 driven primarily by EBITDA growth. FIS has increased its
common dividend by 11% in 2021, and we project the dividend
payout ratio of pre-dividend free cash flow to be about 30%
this year. The company has indicated an intention to resume share
repurchases in 2021, which may reduce financial flexibility depending
on the size of the share repurchase activity. Liquidity is strong
with cash balances of $2 billion at year-end 2020.
FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS
The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectation of solid EBITDA growth
in 2021 driving adjusted total leverage below 3.0x. The
ratings could be upgraded if FIS generates consistent revenue and profitability
growth and maintains leverage in the mid-2x area. The ratings
could be downgraded if revenues or margins decline, or if Moody's
adjusted total leverage is sustained above 3.5x.
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.
With adjusted net revenues of $12.6 billion in 2020,
FIS is a leading global diversified financial technology company.
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
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issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain
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support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action
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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
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and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1243406.
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
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The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was
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Peter Krukovsky
Vice President - Senior Analyst
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
Lenny J. Ajzenman
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
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JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
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