...Positive Outlook maintained: SABMiller Plc (SAB) is on its way to a stronger credit profile. Improved operating margins reported for the financial year to March 2014 (FY14) together with still high profit growth opportunities in developing markets should support the group's ability to generate healthy operating cash flows over the next four years. The materialisation of the deleveraging that Fitch anticipates will support an upgrade of the company's rating. Healthy FCF expected: FY14 free cash flows (FCF) came in below our forecast (at USD1.2bn against USD2bn in FY13), pressured by currency devaluation in a number of developing countries. Currency risk will remain a major feature of the company in the future, but we expect SAB will be able to generate a FCF margin of over 7% over the next four years (5.6% in FY14) supported by long-term demand in emerging markets and cost optimisation initiatives. Less leveraged: In FY14 SAB reduced its total debt to USD17bn (USD18.6bn at 2013-end). Based...
