Bulletin: French Retail Property Company Klepierre Ratings Not Affected By EUR500 Million Share Repurchase Program

PARIS (S&P Global Ratings) March 13, 2017--S&P Global Ratings said today that its ratings on French retail properties owner Klepierre S.A. (A-/Stable/A-2) are not affected by the company's announced plan to repurchase up to €500 million of its own shares. Although we think that the transaction would likely increase Klepierre's debt, it should remain at a level compatible with the current 'A-' rating. We estimate that its ratio of debt-to-debt-plus-equity would likely grow by 2-3 percentage points to 43%-44%, which remains below 50% and in line with our previous assumption. We believe Klepierre's management continues to be strongly committed to maintaining moderate debt levels (loan-to-value in the 35%-40% range) and has the capacity to raise a material amount of cash

...PARIS (S&P Global Ratings) March 13, 2017--S&P Global Ratings said today that its ratings on French retail properties owner Klepierre S.A. (A-/Stable/A-2) are not affected by the company's announced plan to repurchase up to 500 million of its own shares. Although we think that the transaction would likely increase Klepierre's debt, it should remain at a level compatible with the current 'A-' rating. We estimate that its ratio of debt-to-debt-plus-equity would likely grow by 2-3 percentage points to 43%-44%, which remains below 50% and in line with our previous assumption. We believe Klepierre's management continues to be strongly committed to maintaining moderate debt levels (loan-to-value in the 35%-40% range) and has the capacity to raise a material amount of cash from additional disposals this year. Only a rating committee may determine a rating action and this report does not constitute a rating action....

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