Bulletin: UFC Holdings LLC Outlook Remains Negative Until Renewal Of TV Media Rights; ESPN+ Deal Expected To Be Credit Positive

NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) May 10, 2018--S&P Global Ratings said today that its outlook on its 'B' corporate credit rating on UFC Holdings LLC will likely remain negative until the company completes the renewal of its U.S. broadcast television media rights contract, which is with Fox Sports through 2018. The outlook continues to reflect UFC's very high total lease and preferred stock adjusted debt to EBITDA, forecasted to be above 9x in 2018. We are willing to tolerate very high leverage at the current rating because we believe UFC will favorably renegotiate its U.S. broadcast TV media rights contract by the end of 2018 in a manner that significantly increases contractual broadcast revenue starting in 2019. As a result,

...NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) May 10, 2018--S&P Global Ratings said today that its outlook on its 'B' corporate credit rating on UFC Holdings LLC will likely remain negative until the company completes the renewal of its U.S. broadcast television media rights contract, which is with Fox Sports through 2018. The outlook continues to reflect UFC's very high total lease and preferred stock adjusted debt to EBITDA, forecasted to be above 9x in 2018. We are willing to tolerate very high leverage at the current rating because we believe UFC will favorably renegotiate its U.S. broadcast TV media rights contract by the end of 2018 in a manner that significantly increases contractual broadcast revenue starting in 2019. As a result, we believe there will be a sustainable improvement in our measure of adjusted leverage, possibly to below 7x by 2019, depending on how much incremental media rights revenue is contracted. Also, the company otherwise has adequate liquidity and good anticipated EBITDA coverage...

Bulletin