London, 05 July 2019 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has changed to positive
from stable the outlook of EVRAZ plc (Evraz). Concurrently,
Moody's has affirmed Evraz's Ba1 corporate family rating (CFR),
Ba1-PD probability of default rating (PDR) and the Ba2 senior unsecured
ratings of the notes issued by Evraz.
RATINGS RATIONALE
Today's change of Evraz's outlook to positive and affirmation
of its ratings primarily reflect Moody's expectation that the company
will maintain its strong financial metrics despite the volatility in steel
and coking coal prices, retain healthy liquidity, and continue
to pursue balanced financial and dividend policies amid its increased
capital spending and risks that persistent international trade disputes
will undermine global demand for steel and commodities.
In the first half of 2019, Evraz paid $577 million in dividend
for 2018, for which the company reported record-high pre-dividend
free cash flow of $1,940 million. Together with the
three earlier interim dividend payouts totalling $1,126 million,
total dividend for 2018 amounts to $1,703 million,
representing 88% of reported pre-dividend free cash flow
for the year. Moody's views this percentage as high,
but it is lower than that of Evraz's largest rated Russian peers,
which paid dividends of nearly 100% of reported free cash flow
or more for 2018, indicating the company's adherence to balanced
dividend policy, despite it lacks any target dividend payout ratio.
Moody's expects Evraz to reduce its dividend amount if its pre-dividend
free cash flow were to decline in a weaker market environment.
In addition, the rating action takes into account Moody's
expectation that profitability of Evraz's business in North America
will materially improve following the recent removal of the mutual 25%
steel import tariff by both the US and Canada, which will support
the company's consolidated profitability and improve its geographical
diversification in terms of EBITDA generation. Moody's expects
that EBITDA margin of the North American business, which comprises
two plants in the US and four plants in Canada, will improve to
5%-6% in 2019 from less than 1% a year earlier,
while the share of this business in Evraz's consolidated EBITDA
will grow to 5% from less than 1%.
Evraz's Ba1 rating factors in (1) Moody's expectation that
the company will maintain its Moody's-adjusted total debt/EBITDA
below 2.0x on a sustainable basis, continue to gradually
reduce its total debt and generate sustainable positive post-dividend
free cash flow; (2) Evraz's profile as a low-cost integrated
steelmaker and miner, including low cash costs of coking coal and
iron ore production, and a large low-cost producer of vanadium;
(3) its high self-sufficiency in iron ore and coking coal;
(4) its product, operational and geographical diversification;
(5) its strong market position in long steel products in Russia (including
leadership in rail manufacturing), large diameter pipes and rails
in North America, and vanadium globally; (6) the sustained
demand for Evraz's steel products in Russia, and oil country
tubular goods (OCTG) and rails in North America; (7) the company's
balanced financial policy, which targets to maintain net debt below
$4 billion and net debt/EBITDA below 2.0x, while the
company intends not to increase its total and net debt (which were $4.6
billion and $3.6 billion, respectively, as of
year-end 2018), retaining net debt/EBITDA below 1.5x
through the cycle, compared with 0.9x as of year-end
2018; and (8) Evraz's long-term debt maturity profile,
strong liquidity and conservative liquidity management, as the company
aims to refinance its large debt maturities at least one year in advance.
Evraz's rating also takes into account (1) the fact that the company's
public guidance indicates only a minimum dividend amount and a leverage
cap but lacks any target dividend payout ratio, although Evraz intends
to maintain nonnegative post-dividend free cash flow, tailoring
its dividend payouts to the steel and coking coal market pricing environment
and its capital spending; (2) the sluggish demand for steel in the
Russian construction sector, which is the major consumer of Evraz's
steel products, although Moody's expects this demand to improve
over the next 12-18 months, supported by state initiatives
to develop infrastructure and boost residential construction; (3)
the company's plan to increase capital spending in 2019-22;
and (4) continued volatility in prices of steel, coking coal and
vanadium.
The Ba2 ratings of Evraz's senior unsecured notes are one notch below
the company's corporate family rating. This differential reflects
Moody's view that the notes are structurally subordinated to more
senior obligations of the Evraz group, primarily to unsecured borrowings
at the level of the group's operating companies, including
its two core steelmaking plants Evraz NTMK and Evraz ZSMK.
RATIONALE FOR THE POSITIVE OUTLOOK
The positive outlook reflects Evraz's strong positioning within
the current rating category and the possibility of an upgrade over the
next 12-18 months.
WHAT COULD CHANGE RATINGS UP/DOWN
Moody's could upgrade Evraz's ratings if the company (1) maintains
its Moody's-adjusted total debt/EBITDA below 2.0x on a sustainable
basis; (2) continues to build a track record of adhering to balanced
financial and dividend policies and generates sustainable positive post-dividend
free cash flow; and (3) continues to pursue conservative liquidity
management and maintains healthy liquidity.
Moody's could downgrade the ratings if the company's (1) Moody's-adjusted
total debt/EBITDA rises above 3.0x on a sustained basis; or
(2) liquidity and liquidity management deteriorate materially.
PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Steel Industry published
in September 2017. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on
www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.
EVRAZ plc (Evraz) is one of the largest vertically integrated steel,
mining and vanadium companies in Russia. The company's main assets
are its steel plants and rolling mills (in Russia, North America,
Europe and Kazakhstan), and iron ore and coal mining facilities,
as well as trading assets. In 2018, Evraz generated revenue
of $12.8 billion (2017: $10.8 billion)
and Moody's-adjusted EBITDA of $3.8 billion
(2017: $2.6 billion). The company is jointly
controlled by Roman Abramovich (28.77%), Alexander
Abramov (19.41%) and Alexander Frolov (9.69%).
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 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.
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.
Artem Frolov
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service Limited, Russian Branch
7th floor, Four Winds Plaza
21 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya St.
Moscow 125047
Russia
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454
David G. Staples
MD - Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Group
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Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454
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