Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. 'BBB+' Rating Affirmed; Liquidity Revised To Strong; Outlook Stable

Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) ended fiscal 2015 with more than $900 million in cash, which it used to repay a $500 million 2017 bond maturity in January 2016, prompting us to revise the company's liquidity to strong. We are affirming our 'BBB+' corporate credit rating on DPS. The outlook is stable, reflecting our expectation that DPS will continue to grow earnings and cash flows, which should permit it to fund shareholder returns while maintaining stable credit measures, including debt to EBITDA near or below 2x and funds from operations (FFO) to debt close to 40%. NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) March 25, 2016--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it affirmed its 'BBB+' corporate credit rating on Texas-based

...+ Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) ended fiscal 2015 with more than $900 million in cash, which it used to repay a $500 million 2017 bond maturity in January 2016, prompting us to revise the company's liquidity to strong. + We are affirming our '###+' corporate credit rating on DPS. + The outlook is stable, reflecting our expectation that DPS will continue to grow earnings and cash flows, which should permit it to fund shareholder returns while maintaining stable credit measures, including debt to EBITDA near or below 2x and funds from operations (FFO) to debt close to 40%. NEW YORK (Standard & Poor's) March 25, 2016--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it affirmed its '###+' corporate credit rating on Texas-based Dr Pepper Snapple Group. The outlook remains stable. We revised our liquidity assessment on DPS to strong from adequate after the company used year-end cash balances to repay its upcoming 2016 $500 million bond maturity. Following this repayment, we now project liquidity...

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