New York, October 03, 2018 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") upgraded Advanced Micro Devices,
Inc.'s ("AMD") corporate family rating to Ba3, senior unsecured
rating to B1, and affirmed the speculative grade liquidity rating
of SGL-1. The outlook is stable.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The upgrade of the corporate family rating to Ba3 reflects AMD's improved
performance outlook, driven by design wins, modest market
share gains, and an expanded set of product offerings. As
a result, Moody's expects around 25% revenue growth in 2018
and at least high-single digit revenue growth, slightly higher
gross margins, as well as operating profitability and positive free
cash flow in 2019. For 2018, Moody's projects revenue
over $6.5 billion, free cash flow over $200
million, and adjusted gross debt to EBITDA of about 2.5x
with leverage declining below 2.0x in 2019.
Driven by new products with higher average selling prices, AMD's
PC-related business (microprocessors and graphics chips) have reported
five consecutive quarters of profitability through June. With an
improved product positioning in the desktop, notebook, and
a richer mix of graphics products, Moody's projects continued
profitable growth through the rest of 2018 and 2019. The growing
enterprise, embedded, and semi-custom business is supported
by very strong positions in game consoles (including Xbox and PlayStation),
although Moody's projects slightly lower revenue and operating profit
in 2018 as the segment benefited from console upgrades in 2017.
Over the last two years, AMD product roadmap execution has improved
considerably and the company successfully launched 2 generations of commercial
and consumer desktop processors, mobile processors, a new
graphics lineup, and its first generation of EPYC server processors.
A recent decision by AMD's foundry partner (GLOBALFOUNDRIES) to
not pursue 7 nanometer technology means AMD will increase its reliance
on its other foundry partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Co. Ltd. (TSMC) and for leading edge chip making.
GLOBALFOUNDRIES had historically manufactured the majority of AMD's
CPUs. Moody's believes the increased use of TSMC for leading
edge microprocessor production provides additional manufacturing roadmap
certainty for AMD and its customers, which is a credit positive.
AMD is currently sampling 7 nanometer server processors, which it
expects to launch in 2019 as well as a 7nm datacenter GPU that is expected
to launch later in 2018. With this product and manufacturing positioning,
combined with Intel's challenges at 10 nanometers that are expected
to last through 2019, AMD is well positioned to increase its share
of the profitable and growing server CPU market from its current level
of just over 1% (AMD is targeting mid-single digit market
share exiting 2018).
AMD's SGL-1 rating reflects the company's solid liquidity profile.
AMD reported $983 million of cash and cash equivalents as of June
30, 2018. AMD also maintains a $500 million asset
based revolving credit facility (ABL) under which AMD had an outstanding
loan balance of $70 million as of June 30, 2018. With
cash balances, access to the ABL, and no debt maturities until
$142 million is due in March 2019, AMD has very good liquidity.
Ratings upgraded:
Corporate family rating to Ba3 from B2
Probability of default rating to Ba3-PD from B2-PD
$142 million (outstanding) senior unsecured notes due 2019 to B1
(LGD4) from B3 (LGD4)
$347 million (outstanding) senior unsecured notes due 2022 to B1
(LGD4) from B3 (LGD4)
$310 million (outstanding) senior unsecured notes due 2024 to B1
(LGD4) from B3 (LGD4)
Ratings affirmed
Speculative grade liquidity rating at SGL-1
Outlook Actions:
Outlook stable
The stable outlook reflects AMD's much improved balance sheet and broadened
product positioning and prospects for improved operating performance and
cash generation over the next year. The ability to consistently
execute product and technology transitions, as well as competition
from strong competitors such as Intel and Nvidia remain key challenges.
The rating could be upgraded if AMD is able to sustain solid business
execution, grow revenue and improve operating profitability and
sustain positive free cash flow. Additionally, continued
conservative financial practices, including maintaining cash and
liquid investments of approximately $1 billion or more, could
also support a higher rating.
The rating could be downgraded if AMD's cash and liquid investments are
likely to drop below $600 million (without raising additional debt),
if operating margins decline below 5% or free cash flow turns negative.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Semiconductor Industry
published in July 2018. Please see the Rating Methodologies page
on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is a fabless semiconductor
company that specializes in microprocessors, graphics processing
units and semi-custom and embedded processors. AMD reported
revenue of $5.33 billion in 2017.
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.
Richard J. Lane
Senior Vice President
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
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653