Mexico, November 19, 2015 -- Moody's de Mexico (Moody´s) today affirmed Televisa´s
Baa1/Aaa.mx issuer and senior unsecured ratings and changed the
outlook on all ratings to negative from stable.
In a separate action, Moody's Investors Service assigned a
Baa1 rating to Grupo Televisa, S.A.B. (Televisa)'s
proposed long term senior unsecured notes for an amount of up to USD 1.2
billion. Proceeds of the notes will be used to finance capital
expenditures for the telecommunications division over the next 18-24
months.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The change in Televisa´s outlook to negative reflects the higher
leverage ratio pro-forma to the issuance, above the range
for its Baa1 credit rating, without expectations of significant
reduction over the next 12-18 months. The negative outlook
also captures possible difficulties in executing its pricing revision
strategy on the advertising inventory; the expectations for negative
free cash flow at least until 2018; and the risks of potential use
of its large cash position for substantial M&A.
Televisa's Baa1 ratings are supported by the group's strong competitive
position in the Mexican television, consistent growth in its telecom
segment, and stable operating performance. Televisa's strong
liquidity and comfortable debt maturity profile also support its ratings.
Constraining Televisa's ratings, however, are the presence
of larger and well-funded competitors in the Telecom sector,
where the company has been increasing its presence, as well as its
smaller scale in terms of revenues when compared to global peers.
In addition, Televisa's credit profile is negatively pressured by
increased leverage.
The company's advertisement-heavy business is currently going through
a pricing revision strategy, which will impact revenue generation
in the short run until late 2017, when we expect the company will
complete negotiations. Afterwards, we believe that the positive
effects of a better priced advertising inventory will support higher revenue
generation in this segment.
Recent regulatory changes and positive sector fundamentals are playing
in favor of Televisa's expanding telecom segment. The company
is well positioned to grab the expected growth in Mexico´s low-penetrated
fixed broadband, considering its low cost, high-quality
offer; its expansion into main cities (both organic and inorganic);
and its rapid brand positioning in the country. Further,
Televisa´s solid liquidity position will support the large capital
investments needed during the current expansion phase.
Televisa has a strong liquidity position. The company's cash and
equivalents balance as of September, 30 2015 totaled MXN 41,091
million (about USD2.60 billion), enough to cover 43.4%
of its total reported gross debt. The company has a comfortable
debt maturity profile, with upcoming maturities totaling USD171
million through 2016. Roughly 56% of reported debt was denominated
in US dollars as of September 2015. Foreign exchange exposure on
US dollar obligations is mitigated by the significant portion of its cash
balance in USD as well as by USD denominated Univision royalties.
As is common practice in Latin America, Televisa does not maintain
committed revolving credit facilities.
Given Televisa´s high leverage for its rating, upward pressure
in the rating is very limited. However, the group's ratings
could be upgraded if it increases its scale and diversification to the
point that its operating performance and credit metrics become less susceptible
to the potential impact of large acquisitions or increasing capex as the
company increases its focus on the Telecommunications segment.
Quantitatively, the ratings could be upgrade if Moody's adjusted
gross leverage ratio decreases to below 1.0 times, EBITA
coverage ratio is above 6 times and EBITDA margin is maintained above
from 25% on a sustained basis.
Televisa's ratings could come under downward pressure if the company is
not able to return to Moody's adjusted gross leverage ratio of 2.75
times within the next 12-18 months, or if the cash position
is used for a sizable M&A activity or if the pricing revision strategy
takes longer than 2017 with an important drop in advertising revenues.
In addition, Televisa's ratings could suffer downward pressure if
cash on hand fell below USD 1.5 billion on a sustained basis.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Large Global Diversified
Media Industry published in December 2010. Please see the Credit
Policy page on www.moodys.com.mx for a copy of this
methodology.
The period of time covered in the financial information used to determine
Grupo Televisa, S.A.B.'s rating is between
12/31/2011 and 09/30/2015 (source: audited financial statements).
Moody's National Scale Credit Ratings (NSRs) are intended as relative
measures of creditworthiness among debt issues and issuers within a country,
enabling market participants to better differentiate relative risks.
NSRs differ from Moody's global scale credit ratings in that they are
not globally comparable with the full universe of Moody's rated entities,
but only with NSRs for other rated debt issues and issuers within the
same country. NSRs are designated by a ".nn"
country modifier signifying the relevant country, as in ".za"
for South Africa. For further information on Moody's approach to
national scale credit ratings, please refer to Moody's Credit rating
Methodology published in June 2014 entitled "Mapping Moody's National
Scale Ratings to Global Scale Ratings".
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Information sources used to prepare the rating are the following:
parties involved in the ratings, public information, and confidential
and proprietary Moody's information.
The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity prior to public dissemination.
A general listing of the sources of information used in the rating process,
and the structure and voting process for the rating committees responsible
for the assignment and monitoring of ratings can be found in the Disclosure
tab in www.moodys.com.mx.
The date of the last Credit Rating Action was 30/04/2015.
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.mx.
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.
This Rating is subject to upgrade or downgrade based on future changes
in the financial condition of the Issuer/Security, and said modifications
will be made without Moody's de México S.A. de C.V
accepting any liability as a result.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated entity,
obligation or credit satisfactory for the purposes of issuing a rating.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it uses
in assigning a rating is of sufficient quality and from sources Moody's
considers to be reliable including, when appropriate, independent
third-party sources. However, Moody's is not an auditor
and cannot in every instance independently verify or validate information
received in the rating process.
Please see Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions on www.moodys.com.mx
for further information on the meaning of each rating category and the
definition of default and recovery.
Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com.mx
for the last rating action and the rating history. The date on
which some ratings were first released goes back to a time before Moody's
ratings were fully digitized and accurate data may not be available.
Consequently, Moody's provides a date that it believes is the most
reliable and accurate based on the information that is available to it.
Please see our website www.moodys.com.mx for further
information.
Please see www.moodys.com.mx for any updates on changes
to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued
the rating.
The ratings issued by Moody's de Mexico are opinions regarding the credit
quality of securities and/or their issuers and not a recommendation to
invest in any such security and/or issuer.
Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com.mx
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Gabriel Vigueras
Vice President - Senior Analyst
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's de Mexico S.A. de C.V
Ave. Paseo de las Palmas
No. 405 - 502
Col. Lomas de Chapultepec
Mexico, DF 11000
Mexico
JOURNALISTS: 001-888-779-5833
SUBSCRIBERS:52-55-1253-5700
Marianna Waltz, CFA
MD - Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 800-891-2518
SUBSCRIBERS: 55-11-3043-7300
Releasing Office:
Moody's de Mexico S.A. de C.V
Ave. Paseo de las Palmas
No. 405 - 502
Col. Lomas de Chapultepec
Mexico, DF 11000
Mexico
JOURNALISTS: 001-888-779-5833
SUBSCRIBERS:52-55-1253-5700
Moody's changes Televisa's outlook to negative