TORONTO – Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Shaw Communications’ senior unsecured debt ratings to Baa3 from Ba1, after concluding a ratings review that began at the end of January.
Shaw’s ratings outlook has also been repositioned to “stable”. With the company’s debt now rated at an investment grade level, the former speculative grade liquidity rating has been withdrawn, as have the company’s probability of default rating and loss given default assessments for individual debt instruments, the press release detailed.
The rating action anticipates that Shaw “will exhibit key attributes of an investment grade company”, including a strong and relatively stable business platform supported by a stable capital structure, moderate debt leverage and sound liquidity management.
Moody’s said that in addition to the company having the “underlying ability”, Shaw’s management and the board are willing “to steward the company forward in a measured and balanced manner”.
Noting that Shaw also has good liquidity due to “strong internally generated cash flow” plus a $1.0 billion revolving term loan that is “largely un-drawn” and is committed for an extended term to maturity through May 31, 2012, Moody’s said that the news that the company has no immediate plans to deploy its newly acquired wireless telephone spectrum also help to assure that liquidity will not be compromised in the short term.
