Bulletin: Orange Ratings And Outlook Unchanged On Proposal To Sell Stake In EE

PARIS (Standard&Poor's) Dec. 16, 2014--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on French telecommunications group Orange (BBB+/Negative/A-2) remain unchanged following the announcement of an exclusivity agreement reached with BT Group PLC for the potential sale of Orange's 50% stake in U.K.-based mobile player EE. By our estimate, Orange would likely receive about £4 billion in cash for its 50% stake in EE, in addition to a 4% stake in BT. In our view, the large cash proceeds would allow Orange to at least offset the negative impact on its metrics of the removal of our proportionate analytical adjustment. The adjustment currently adds half of EE's EBITDA (and debt) to Orange's reported figures, generating

...PARIS (Standard & Poor's) Dec. 16, 2014--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on French telecommunications group Orange (###+/Negative/A-2) remain unchanged following the announcement of an exclusivity agreement reached with BT Group PLC for the potential sale of Orange's 50% stake in U.K.-based mobile player EE. By our estimate, Orange would likely receive about ú4 billion in cash for its 50% stake in EE, in addition to a 4% stake in BT. In our view, the large cash proceeds would allow Orange to at least offset the negative impact on its metrics of the removal of our proportionate analytical adjustment. The adjustment currently adds half of EE's EBITDA (and debt) to Orange's reported figures, generating a somewhat favorable impact on Orange's adjusted metrics. Under Standard & Poor's policies, only a Rating Committee can determine a Credit Rating Action (including a Credit Rating change, affirmation or withdrawal, Rating Outlook change, or CreditWatch...

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