London, 15 March 2016 -- Moody's Investors Services today upgraded Saga Plc's (Saga)
corporate family rating (CFR) to Ba1 from Ba2 and probability of default
rating (PDR) to Ba2-PD from Ba3-PD. Consequently,
Moody's also upgraded Saga MidCo Limited's instrument ratings
on the Term Loan A and Revolving Credit Facility (RCF) to Ba1 from Ba2.
The outlook is stable.
Saga is a UK based group, listed on the London Stock Exchange,
providing a range of branded products to the over-50s consumer
segment. Saga's products mainly span across financial services
including motor, home, travel and private medical insurance
underwriting and broking services, as well as travel with a packaged
and cruise holidays offering.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The rating upgrade is primarily driven by the material improvement in
Saga's financial flexibility metrics following the voluntary prepayment
of GBP 200 million of the Group's GBP 700 million Term Loan A during
the first half of 2015. The rating upgrade is also supported by
the group's good underlying profitability growth and overall strong
cash-flow generation.
As a result of the aforementioned voluntary debt repayment, partially
offset by the GBP 70 million RCF drawdown, Saga's debt-to-EBITDA
(calculated on a Moody's basis) reduced from 3.2x as at 31
January 2015 to an around 2.6x as at 31 July 2015, which
is below Moody's 3.0x upgrade trigger to a Ba1 corporate
family rating. Over the next 12-18 months, Moody's
expects Saga will continue to reduce its leverage position and increase
earnings coverage of interest supported by both underlying EBITDA growth
and further voluntary debt repayments. However, Moody's
analysis incorporates the expected hike in leverage in 2019, following
the decision to buy a new cruise ship, which will be funded by debt.
With regard to profitability, Moody's notes that although
Saga reported a GBP 134 million net loss for the year-ended 31
January 2015 (YE2015), on a like-for-like basis (i.e.
excluding the losses on the discontinued healthcare operations and before
IPO expenses), profit before tax increased by 10% to GBP
196 million. Similarly, YE2015 trading EBITDA from continued
operations grew by 6% to GBP 227 million, which was primarily
driven by improved underwriting results from the motor insurance segment,
also reflected in the 10.5 percentage point improvement in the
combined ratio to 78%, partially offset by lower add-on
sales.
In Moody's view, a key credit strength of the group is its
well-establish and highly trusted affinity brand, which benefits
from a loyal customer base and ability to cross-sell its products.
However, offsetting these benefits to a certain extent is Saga's
limited scale and relatively modest share of both the UK personal insurance
market and travel industry, even within its target customer segment.
Saga's reliance on a single country and the UK personal insurance
market, which accounted for 45% of group revenues and 93%
of group EBITDA for YE2015, is also a rating constraint.
Furthermore, in Moody's view, the on-going difficult
trading environment across both UK personal motor and homes lines could
hamper Saga's ability to grow profitability.
-- DEBT RATINGS --
Saga's PDR of Ba2-PD, which is one notch below the CFR,
reflects Moody's assumption of a 65% family recovery rate as is
customary for capital structures including senior bank debt only with
maintenance covenants.
The Ba1 rating of the Term Loan A and RCF, which rank pari passu
to one another, are at the same level as the CFR. This is
a result of the relatively small amount of super senior pension liabilities
and other non-financial debt liabilities at the operating companies
ranking ahead. The senior bank facilities benefit from only limited
guarantees (i.e. there is no guarantees provided by the
regulated entities including Saga's underwriting and travel businesses)
and remain subject to financial covenants (leverage and interest cover).
-- OUTLOOK AND RATING DRIVERS --
The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectation that the group will continue
to expand its motor insurance footprint through its new panel whilst maintaining
a better than industry combined operating ratio (COR) on its portfolio;
enjoy stable EBITDA margins and sustained cash generating; and that
Saga will continues to implement its strategy to profitably grow its travel
operations.
Moody's says the following factors could put upward pressure on
Saga's ratings: (1) meaningful growth in the group's
share of the UK insurance market without a decline in the underwriting
or broking EBITDA margins; (2) net profit margins consistently above
10%; (3) a successful expansion across a range of new and
existing products targeting the over-50 market segment; and
(4) debt-to-EBITDA towards the lower end of Saga's
internal 1.5x-2x target on a long-term sustainable
basis.
Downward rating pressure could develop if: (1) the company's leverage
increases above 3x on a debt-to-EBITDA basis; (2) profitability
deteriorates materially, reflected in EBTIDA margins consistently
below 20% or Net Profit Margin below 8%; (3) adverse
loss development drives a material deterioration in Saga's COR;
or (4) the group's revenue and/or market share reduces significantly
in its core lines of business.
Moody's has upgraded the following ratings :
Saga Limited: Corporate family rating to Ba1 from Ba2
Saga Limited: Probability of default rating to Ba2-PD from
Ba3-PD
Saga MidCo Limited: Backed Senior Secured Term Loan A to Ba1 (LGD3)
from Ba2 (LGD3)
Saga MidCo Limited: Backed Senior Secured Revolving Credit Facility
from Ba1 (LGD3) from Ba2 (LGD3)
The outlook for both Saga Limited and Saga MidCo Limited is stable.
In fiscal year ended 31 January 2015, Saga reported revenues from
continued operations of GBP 900.5 million (YE2014: GBP 944
million) and profit before tax from continued operations of GBP 113.8
million (YE14: GPB 171.3 million). Saga Plc's
reported total equity at GBP 1,024.3 million and total assets
of GBP 2,731.4 million as at 31 July 2015.
PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Insurance Brokers
and Service Companies published in December 2015. Please see the
Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of
this methodology.
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.
Helena Kingsley-Tomkins
Analyst
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Investors Service Ltd.
One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 5FA
United Kingdom
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Antonello Aquino
Associate Managing Director
Financial Institutions Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service Ltd.
One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 5FA
United Kingdom
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Moody's upgrades Saga's senior secured debt rating by one notch to Ba1, stable outlook.