Research Update: George Weston Ltd. Upgraded To 'BBB+' From 'BBB' On Sustained Low Leverage; Outlook Stable

Toronto-based George Weston Ltd.'s (GWL) leverage remains low at 2.4x as of year-end Dec. 31, 2023, comfortably below our upgrade threshold for the past three years. We believe that GWL management is committed to a financial policy that maintains low leverage and hence we do not expect that GWL nor the company's subsidiaries will pursue acquisitions that would spike leverage. As a result, S&P Global Ratings revised its financial policy modifier on the company to neutral from negative and also raised its issuer credit rating on GWL to 'BBB+' from 'BBB'. At the same time, we raised our issue-level rating on the company's unsecured debt to 'BBB' from 'BBB-'. We also raised our ratings on various debt issued by GWL

...- Toronto-based George Weston Ltd.'s (GWL) leverage remains low at 2.4x as of year-end Dec. 31, 2023, comfortably below our upgrade threshold for the past three years. - We believe that GWL management is committed to a financial policy that maintains low leverage and hence we do not expect that GWL nor the company's subsidiaries will pursue acquisitions that would spike leverage. - As a result, S&P Global Ratings revised its financial policy modifier on the company to neutral from negative and also raised its issuer credit rating on GWL to '###+' from '###'. - At the same time, we raised our issue-level rating on the company's unsecured debt to '###' from '###-'. We also raised our ratings on various debt issued by GWL (see Ratings List). - The stable outlook on the company reflects S&P Global Ratings' expectation that, based on management's growth strategy and capital allocation policy, GWL's consolidated adjusted debt-to-EBITDA ratio will be comfortably within the 2.5x-3.0x range....

Research Update