Bulletin: Cox Enterprises Inc. Likely To Experience Significant Temporary EBITDA Declines

NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) April 2, 2020--S&P Global Ratings said today that its rating on Cox Enterprises Inc. (BBB/Stable/A-2) has sufficient cushion to absorb a sizeable decline in earnings from Cox's auto segment in 2020. We believe Cox's auto business, which accounted for about 20% of 2019 EBITDA, is being severely hurt by the shelter-in-place orders that now apply to about 200 million Americans. With people unable to leave their homes, auto auctions have grinded to a halt, and Manheim Inc. has temporarily closed locations through April. Many dealerships across the country have also shut down to prevent the spread of COVID-19. As a result, we expect substantially lower transaction volume to persist through at least the second quarter,

...April 2, 2020 NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) April 2, 2020--S&P Global Ratings said today that its rating on Cox Enterprises Inc. (###/Stable/A-2) has sufficient cushion to absorb a sizeable decline in earnings from Cox's auto segment in 2020. We believe Cox's auto business, which accounted for about 20% of 2019 EBITDA, is being severely hurt by the shelter-in-place orders that now apply to about 200 million Americans. With people unable to leave their homes, auto auctions have grinded to a halt, and Manheim Inc. has temporarily closed locations through April. Many dealerships across the country have also shut down to prevent the spread of COVID-19. As a result, we expect substantially lower transaction volume to persist through at least the second quarter, which could result in negative auto segment EBITDA for the quarter. Still, we believe that once the coronavirus is contained, there will be pent-up demand such that revenues eventually return to prepandemic levels in relatively short...

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