Fitch Rates America Movil's US$500MM Sr. Notes 'BBB+'; Outlook Positive.MONTERREY, Mexico -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. has assigned a 'BBB+' with a Positive Rating Outlook to America Movil, S.A. de C.V.'s (America Movil) US$500 million floating rate senior notes due June 27, 2008. Proceeds from the debt issuance will be used for general corporate uses. Fitch maintains a local and foreign currency issuer default ratings at 'BBB+' with a Positive Rating Outlook, including approximately US$3.8 billion of outstanding indebtedness. Fitch also rates 'AA+(chl)' with a Stable Rating Outlook a Chilean notes program of approximately US$1.0 billion. The ratings of America Movil, S.A. de C.V. are supported by the company's strong market position in the Mexican mobile segment, its diverse and growing portfolio of wireless assets throughout Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. , and its sound financial and liquidity position. The ratings incorporate the agreements to acquire from Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications, Inc. Inc. a 100% of Verzion Dominicana C. por A. which was closed on December 1st., 2006, a 52% interest in Telecomunicaciones de Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (pwār`tō rē`kō), island (2005 est. pop. 3,917,000), 3,508 sq mi (9,086 sq km), West Indies, c.1,000 mi (1,610 km) SE of Miami, Fla. (TELPRI) and jointly with Telmex a 28.51% interest in Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV CANTV Compañía Anónima Nacional Teléfonos de Venezuela ), the merger with holding company America Telecom S.A. de C.V., the expectation of additional share repurchases as well as increasing dividend payments. America Movil's credit ratings are underpinned by Telcel, its Mexican wireless unit. Telcel business fundamentals business fundamentals The general background within which an economy operates including earnings, sales, wage rates, taxes, and inflation. Improving business fundamentals are generally viewed as bullish for stocks, although stock prices at any given point are supported by strong demand growth and stable EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) A metric used to show a company's profitability, but not its cash flow. EBITDA became popular in the 1980s to show the potential profitability of leveraged buyouts, but has become margins, which result in strong cash flow generation. Telcel accounted for 47% of consolidated revenues and 64% of EBITDA for the first nine months of 2006 and is the largest wireless provider in Mexico, with an estimated market share of 77%. Demand for wireless services in Mexico is still growing at a fast pace; Telcel grew its subscriber base by 21.3% to 40.7 million wireless lines over the last twelve months ended September 30, 2006. America Movil has an increasingly diverse revenue stream, generated by a growing wireless business outside Mexico that provides the company with important cash flow and currency diversification Currency diversification Using more than one currency as an investing or financing strategy. Exposure to a diversified currency portfolio typically entails less exchange rate risk than if all the portfolio exposure were in a single foreign currency. . Fitch expects that over the next few years, operations outside Mexico should contribute more to consolidated EBITDA, diversifying away the cash flow coming from Mexico. The company's non-Mexican subsidiaries accounted for 53% of consolidated revenues and 36% of EBITDA during the first nine months of 2006 and are expected to generate sufficient cash flow to meet America Movil's consolidated net interest expense by approximately 3.5x; a geographically diversified portfolio of assets lowers business risk and cash flow volatility. As of September 30, 2006, America Movil operates in 14 Latin American countries List of American countries Nations:
The company's liquidity position is strong despite of paying approximately US$2.4 billion on December 1st., 2006 for Verizon Dominicana. With short-term maturities and proforma cash balances (including the payment to Verizon) of US$1.0 billion and US$1.6 billion, respectively, at September 30, 2006, and with ample access to financial markets and strong cash flow generation, the company is expected to maintain a strong financial profile, absent major acquisitions, underpinned by a healthy EBITDA generation, which should be approximately US$7.5 billion for yearend 2006. Credit protection measures are strong for the rating category and should improve if debt levels remain stable supported by the expectation that EBITDA should continue increasing driven by the gain of scale of its operations. For the last twelve months ended Sept. 30, 2006, total debt to EBITDA was 1.1 times(x) and EBITDA to gross interest expense remain at 12.7x. The ratings incorporate increasing dividend payments and additional share buybacks. America Movil is the largest provider of wireless services in Mexico and Latin America. In total, the company is composed of subsidiaries in 14 countries in the Americas with 113.9 million wireless subscribers. The company's investments outside Mexico are located in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador El Salvador (ĕl sälväthōr`), officially Republic of El Salvador, republic (2005 est. pop. 6,705,000), 8,260 sq mi (21,393 sq km), Central America. , Uruguay, the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , Paraguay, Chile and Peru. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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