New York, May 26, 2015 -- Moody's Investors Service placed Time Warner Cable, Inc's ("TWC")
Baa2 senior unsecured and Prime-2 commercial paper ratings on review
for downgrade. The review is prompted by Charter Communications,
Inc's ("Charter Communications" -- Ba3 Corporate Family
rating, on review for upgrade) announcement to acquire TWC for $200
per share in a cash-and-stock transaction. Charter's
offer price represents an enterprise value of roughly $80 billion,
consisting of $58 billion of equity plus net debt (debt less cash
and short-term investments) of $22 billion. The total
consideration for TWC is comprised of $100 per share in cash and
$100 in stock, representing a 17% premium over TWC's
closing share price of $171.8 on May 22, 2015.
Concurrently, Charter also announced its plans to acquire Bright
House Networks ("BHN") for $10.4 billion,
comprised of $2.0 billion in cash, $2.5
billion of convertible preferred partnership units, and $5.9
billion of common partnership units.
On Review for Possible Downgrade:
..Issuer: Time Warner Cable, Inc.
....Senior Unsecured Commercial Paper (Local
Currency), Placed on Review for Downgrade, currently P-2
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Local and Foreign Currencies), Placed on Review for Downgrade,
currently Baa2
..Issuer: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Local Currency), Placed on Review for Downgrade, currently
Baa2
Outlook Actions:
..Issuer: Time Warner Cable, Inc.
....Outlook, Changed To Rating Under
Review From Negative
..Issuer: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC
....Outlook, Changed To Rating Under
Review From Negative
RATINGS RATIONALE
The review for downgrade reflects its intention to merge with a lower-rated
and more leveraged entity, which given the financing plans which
include a significant debt component, will lead to deterioration
in the newly combined TWC, Charter and Bright House's balance
sheet strength and credit metrics to a level not consistent with a family
investment grade rating. We estimate that the deal could leave
the combined entity with a debt burden (gross unadjusted debt) in excess
of $60 billion and pro-forma debt-to-EBITDA
(incorporating Moody's standard adjustments) of approximately 4.5x,
compared to TWC's current outstanding gross debt of $23 billion
and adjusted leverage of 3.0x.
Charter will grant security to existing TWC bondholders and thereby increase
the proportion of secured debt in the capital structure. The review
for downgrade will evaluate the mix of debt among secured and unsecured
in the final structure. If secured debt is materially more than
half the total end-state capital structure, this could result
in only one notch of ratings differential between TWC's secured
notes and the combined entity's Corporate Family Rating.
Since we expect the upward ratings impact on Charter's CFR to be
limited to one notch, Moody's anticipates that the review
will result in a multi-notch downgrade of TWC's long-term
debt ratings below investment grade status.
While today's rating reflects our expectation that TWC's post-transaction
credit profile will be weaker than the one that supports its current Baa2
rating, Moody's recognizes the strategic benefits of the deal,
including the potential for sizeable operating and capex synergies for
the three combined companies. If the transaction closes as planned,
Charter, TWC and BHN together, would represent the second
largest cable operator in the U.S. after Comcast Corporation
(A3, Positive) with approximately 17 million basic subscribers.
The deal will also generate significant benefits of scale and cost saving
opportunities, which in turn could result in operating margin expansion
for the combined company.
Moody's review will focus on the acquisition terms, financing
plans, execution risks and pro forma credit metrics of the combined
entity. The review will also focus on the composition of the combined
company's final capital structure, including the proportion
of secured debt relative to unsecured and subordinated debt in the structure
which will impact the individual security ratings. The review will
take into consideration various benefits and flexibility that may come
with larger scale of operations, including the potential for cost
and revenue synergies and stronger customer retention.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Global Pay Television
-- Cable and Direct-to-Home Satellite Operators published
in April 2013. Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of this methodology.
Time Warner Cable, Inc., with its headquarters in New
York, New York, is the second-largest cable operator
in the United States based on basic-video subscribers. The
company provides video, high-speed data and phone services
to residential and commercial customers. Its network passes about
30.4 million homes and commercial establishments, and provides
basic video services to about 11 million subscribers as of 12/31/2014.
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 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.
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.
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.
Neil P Begley
Senior Vice President
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
John C Diaz
MD - Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653