Mexico, October 24, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service downgraded Almacenadora Accel S.A.'s
(Accel) long term local currency issuer rating to B2, from B1.
At the same time, Moody's de México downgraded Accel's
long term Mexican National Scale issuer rating to Baa3.mx,
from Baa2.mx. Moody's also assigned a long term local currency
corporate family rating (CFR) of B2 to Accel. All ratings have
a stable outlook.
The following ratings were downgraded, with a stable outlook:
Long term local currency issuer rating to B2, from B1
Long term Mexican National Scale issuer rating to Baa3.mx,
from Baa2.mx
The following rating was assigned, with a stable outlook:
Long term local currency corporate family rating of B2
RATINGS RATIONALE
In downgrading Accel's standalone rating to B2, from B1,
Moody's mentioned the declining importance and franchise value of
the regulated warehouse for its holding company, Accel, S.A.B.
de C.V., as the group increasingly focuses on logistics
operations and traditional warehousing, rather than on the regulated
issuance of certificates of deposits in Accel's depots. As
such, Accel continues to report very modest operating profits,
which reflect the high costs derived from its operations, as well
as investments in renovations. The company's quarterly results
have been volatile and dependent on non-recurrent income to offset
the weaknesses of its business model. In that regard, Accel's
financial information does not fully reflect the earnings generated by
the non-regulated activities performed by the group's logistics
division within Accel's warehouses, which is a negative driver
for the ratings.
Moody's noted that Accel's ratings incorporate the diversification
of its operations relative to its peers, as exhibited by its ownership
of depots throughout Mexico which include cold storage, rail-access
and complementary processing services. Accel is the second largest
within the regulated warehouse industry in Mexico, with a market
share of 16.8% of assets under custody, as of end-June
2012.
ACCEL'S CORPORATE FAMILY RATING OF B2
Moody's also assigned a Company family rating (CFR) of B2 to Accel.
As a reference point, CFRs represent the rating agency's opinion
of the consolidated credit risk of a speculative grade company,
equivalent to the weighted average of all debt classes within the company's
capital structure, considering the proportionality, seniority
and level of asset protection associated with various debt classes,
both nominally and in relation to each other. Because Accel has
no outstanding debt obligations at this time, Moody's assumes
that the company's B2 issuer rating is at the same rating level
as its B2 CFR. If and when the company issues debt obligations,
Moody's will reassess the seniority and level of asset protection of the
company's capital structure.
Accel is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico and reported Mx$1.1
billion in total assets, Mx$766 million in shareholder's
equity and Mx$10 billion in assets under custody.
The methodology used in this rating is the Finance Company Global Rating
Methodology published in March 2012. Please see the Credit Policy
page on www.moodys.com.mx for a copy of this methodology.
Moody's National Scale 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 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 ".mx"
for Mexico. For further information on Moody's approach to national
scale ratings, please refer to Moody's Rating Methodology published
in October 2012 entitled "Mapping Moody's National Scale Ratings
to Global Scale Ratings".
The date of the last Credit Rating Action was 30 September 2010 when Moody's
Investors Service affirmed Almacenadora Accel's ratings and changed
its outlook to stable, from negative.
The period of time covered in the financial information used to determine
Almacenadora Accel's rating is between 31 December 2007 and 31 August
2012 (source: Moody's and Issuer's financial statements).
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
The Global Scale Credit Ratings on this press release that are issued
by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU are endorsed by Moody's
Investors Service Ltd., One Canada Square, Canary Wharf,
London E 14 5FA, UK, 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
office that has issued a particular Credit Rating is available on www.moodys.com.mx.
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides relevant 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 relevant 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 relevant 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.
The rating has been disclosed to the rated entity prior to public dissemination.
Information sources used to prepare the rating are the following :
parties involved in the ratings, parties not involved in the ratings,
public information, and confidential and proprietary Moody's
Investors Service information.
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.
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 the Rating Process
page 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 the ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com.mx
for further information.
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.
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.
Felipe Carvallo
Asst Vice President - Analyst
Financial Institutions 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
Maria Celina Vansetti-Hutchins
MD - Banking
Financial Institutions Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
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 downgrades Almacenadora Accel's issuer rating to B2; assigns corporate family rating of B2
