Research Update: Controladora Mabe Ratings Raised To 'BBB-' From 'BB+' On Debt Reduction And Financial Discipline; Outlook Stable

In 2017, Mabe successfully executed its deleveraging plan, and the company continues to build a record of financial discipline to ensure sustained debt reductions within the next 12-24 months. We're raising our corporate credit and issue-level ratings on Mabe to 'BBB-' from 'BB+'. The stable outlook reflects our expectations that Mabe will remain committed to deleveraging its capital structure by maintaining a debt-to-EBITDA ratio below 3.0x, and by improving its free operating cash flow (FOCF)-to-debt ratio towards 15%. It also incorporates our view that the company has ample access to external sources of funding to address its 2019 debt maturities. On March 27, 2018, S&P Global Ratings raised its corporate credit and issue-level ratings on Controladora Mabe S.A. de C.V.

...+ In 2017, Mabe successfully executed its deleveraging plan, and the company continues to build a record of financial discipline to ensure sustained debt reductions within the next 12-24 months. + We're raising our corporate credit and issue-level ratings on Mabe to '###-' from '##+'. + The stable outlook reflects our expectations that Mabe will remain committed to deleveraging its capital structure by maintaining a debt-to-EBITDA ratio below 3.0x, and by improving its free operating cash flow (FOCF)-to-debt ratio towards 15%. It also incorporates our view that the company has ample access to external sources of funding to address its 2019 debt maturities....

Research Update