Milan, February 07, 2017 -- Moody's Investors Service has today withdrawn all ratings of SABMiller
Limited (SABMiller, formerly known as SABMiller Plc) and most of
those of its subsidiaries, including the A3/Aaa.za ratings
of SABSA Holdings Limited. The A3 rating on the EUR1 billion senior
unsecured notes issued by SABMiller Holdings Inc and the A3 rating on
the AUD700 million senior unsecured notes issued by FBG Finance Pty Ltd
have been confirmed.
Today's action follows the completion of SABMiller's merger
on 10 October 2016 with Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (ABI,
A3 stable) and the completion of the debt exchange offer by ABI on SABMiller's
debt. Following the exchange offer, most debt instruments
of SABMiller have been either redeemed or partially exchanged with notes
issued or guaranteed by ABI and its subsidiaries.
This concludes the review on SABMiller's ratings initiated by Moody's
on 14 October 2015.
A full list of affected entities and ratings can be found at the end of
this press release.
RATINGS RATIONALE
Moody's has withdrawn the ratings of SABMiller for reorganization reasons
following the merger into Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV which was
completed on 10 October 2016. Following the closing of the transaction,
the vast majority of outstanding debt obligations of SABMiller,
have been either redeemed or partially exchanged with new notes issued
or guaranteed by ABI. The small portion of debt still outstanding
under SABMiller is considered too small to create any structural subordination
issue and not sizable enough to maintain a specific rating. In
this respect Moody's also notes that it does not expect ABI to file
separated audited financial statements for SABMiller going forward.
Please refer to Moody's Investors Service's Policy for Withdrawal of Credit
Ratings, available on its website, www.moodys.com.
CONFIRMATION OF EURO AND AUSTRALIAN NOTES
As part of the debt exchange, ABI has obtained consent to:
1. Exchange the issuer of the EUR1 billion senior unsecured notes
from SABMiller Holdings Inc to Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV.
The rating on this note has been confirmed at A3, with a stable
outlook, in line with those of ABI. The issuer under the
notes will be changed over the few days following this announcement.
2. Exchange the AUD700 million senior unsecured notes issued by
FBG Treasury (Aust.) Pty Ltd with similar notes issued by FBG Finance
Pty Ltd. The new notes are guaranteed by ABI and the rating has
been confirmed at A3, with a stable outlook, in line with
those of ABI. The Australian MTN programme of FBG Treasury (Aust.)
Pty Ltd will be also guaranteed by ABI and its (P)A3 rating has also been
confirmed. ABI as guarantor of both the notes and the MTN programme
will be added over the few days following this announcement.
WITHDRAWAL OF SABSA HOLDINGS LIMITED RATINGS
SABSA Holding Limited ratings of A3/Aaa.za have been withdrawn
as its USD73 million equivalent outstanding senior unsecured debt,
formerly guaranteed by SABMiller Limited, was not part of the debt
exchange offer and it does not currently benefit from a guarantee from
ABI.
List of affected ratings:
Withdrawals:
..Issuer: SABMiller Limited
....BACKED Senior Unsecured Commercial Paper,
Withdrawn , previously rated P-2
....Senior Unsecured Medium-Term Note
Program, Withdrawn , previously rated (P)A3 on review for
downgrade
....Senior Unsecured Medium-Term Note
Program , Withdrawn , previously rated (P)P-2
....BACKED Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Withdrawn , previously rated A3 on review for downgrade
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Withdrawn , previously rated A3 on review for downgrade
..Issuer: Foster's Group Pty Limited
.... Issuer Rating, Withdrawn ,
previously rated A3 on review for downgrade
..Issuer: FBG Treasury (Aust.) Pty Ltd
....BACKED Senior Unsecured Medium-Term
Note Program, Withdrawn , previously rated (P)A3 on review
for downgrade
..Issuer: SABMiller Holdings Inc
....BACKED Senior Unsecured Commercial Paper,
Withdrawn , previously rated P-2
....BACKED Senior Unsecured Medium-Term
Note Program, Withdrawn , previously rated (P)A3 on review
for downgrade
....BACKED Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Withdrawn , previously rated A3 on review for downgrade
..Issuer: SABSA Holdings Limited
....BACKED Senior Unsecured Medium-Term
Note Program, Withdrawn , previously rated (P)A3 on review
for downgrade
....BACKED Senior Unsecured Medium-Term
Note Program, Withdrawn , previously rated (P)P-2
....NSR BACKED Senior Unsecured Medium-Term
Note Program, Withdrawn , previously rated (P)Aaa.za
on review for downgrade
....NSR BACKED Senior Unsecured Medium-Term
Note Program, Withdrawn , previously rated (P)P-1.za
....BACKED Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Withdrawn , previously rated A3 on review for downgrade
....NSR BACKED Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Withdrawn , previously rated Aaa.za on review for downgrade
Confirmations:
..Issuer: FBG Finance Pty Ltd
....BACKED Senior Unsecured Medium-Term
Note Program, Confirmed at (P)A3
....BACKED Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Confirmed at A3
..Issuer: SABMiller Holdings Inc
....BACKED Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Confirmed at A3
Outlook Actions:
..Issuer: SABMiller Limited
....Outlook, Changed To Rating Withdrawn
From Rating Under Review
..Issuer: Foster's Group Pty Limited
....Outlook, Changed To Rating Withdrawn
From Rating Under Review
..Issuer: FBG Finance Pty Ltd
....Outlook, Changed To Stable From
Rating Under Review
..Issuer: FBG Treasury (Aust.) Pty Ltd
....Outlook, Changed To Rating Withdrawn
From Rating Under Review
..Issuer: SABMiller Holdings Inc
....Outlook, Changed To Stable From
Rating Under Review
..Issuer: SABSA Holdings Limited
....Outlook, Changed To Rating Withdrawn
From Rating Under Review
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Global Alcoholic Beverage
Industry published in October 2013. Please see the Rating Methodologies
page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.
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 May 2016 entitled "Mapping National Scale Ratings
from Global Scale Ratings". While NSRs have no inherent absolute
meaning in terms of default risk or expected loss, a historical
probability of default consistent with a given NSR can be inferred from
the GSR to which it maps back at that particular point in time.
For information on the historical default rates associated with different
global scale rating categories over different investment horizons,
please see https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_189530.
SABMiller Limited was the world's second-largest brewer by volume,
and the third largest by revenues, producing and distributing a
large variety of beer brands in approximately 75 countries, before
being acquired by ABI. During fiscal year ending March 2016 and
including the share of joint ventures and associates, the company
generated net total revenue of $24.1 billion (down 8%
compared with the prior year due to adverse currency movements).
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.
Paolo Leschiutta
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's Italia S.r.l
Corso di Porta Romana 68
Milan 20122
Italy
Telephone:+39-02-9148-1100
Marina Albo
MD - Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Releasing Office:
Moody's Italia S.r.l
Corso di Porta Romana 68
Milan 20122
Italy
Telephone:+39-02-9148-1100