Fitch Rates TELUS' $300MM Senior Unsecured Notes 'BBB+'.CHICAGO -- 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+' rating to TELUS TELUS Telemetric Universal Sensor Corporation's (TELUS) $300 million senior unsecured note offering due 2013. TELUS' Issuer Default Rating (IDR IDR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Indonesian Rupiah. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ) is currently rated 'BBB+' by Fitch. Proceeds of the offering will be used to refinance a portion of the cross currency swap Currency Swap A swap that involves the exchange of principal and interest in one currency for the same in another currency. Notes: Currency swaps were originally done to get around the problem of exchange controls. agreements used to hedge the US$1.2 billion of unsecured senior notes due June 2007. The Rating Outlook is Stable. Fitch recognizes the ratings stability of TELUS' diversified operations supported by the strong growth in revenue and cash flow at its mobility segment as well as its leading market position as a local operator in western Canada and eastern Quebec. The wireless segment provides an important and sustainable growth offset to the negative competitive effects experienced by TELUS in its local and long distance segments. The wireline operations will continue to experience pressure on revenue and profitability due to declining access lines as cable operators expand VoIP offerings. TELUS maintains good liquidity through its free cash flow, credit facilities and accounts receivable accounts receivable n. the amounts of money due or owed to a business or professional by customers or clients. Generally, accounts receivable refers to the total amount due and is considered in calculating the value of a business or the business' problems in paying securitization program. For 2006, TELUS expects to generate approximately $1.6 billion in free cash flow. TELUS has additional liquidity available of approximately $100 million through its accounts receivable securitization program and $1.5 billion from its credit facilities. TELUS' $800 million five year revolving facility expires in May 2010 and three year revolving facility expires in May 2008. TELUS' share repurchase program consumes the majority of its free cash flow. Since the commencement of the second Normal Course Issuer Bid program in December 2005, TELUS repurchased 6.4 million shares (26.5% of program) for $289 million. 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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