...TORONTO (Standard & Poor's) May 8, 2015--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today said that its ratings on Vancouver, B.C.-based integrated telecommunications service provider Telus Corp. are unchanged following the company's May 7 announcement that it is revising its target debt leverage. The company aims for reported net debt-to-EBITDA (excluding restructuring and other like costs) of 2.0x-2.5x (actual: 2.3x at March 31, 2015) from its long-held target range of 1.5x-2.0x. The increase in leverage target points to a less conservative financial policy and higher tolerance for debt, but the revised range remains below our downgrade threshold of 3x for adjusted debt to EBITDA (our adjustments add about 0.2x to Telus' reported leverage). The revision follows the company's review of its optimal capital structure, capitalization relative to global peers, and time to deleverage to the previously lower range given priorities for corporate investments and shareholder returns. The company maintains...
