A integrazione, il senso è molto chiaro. Se qualcuno sente Iw o altre banche, chiedere la quotazione non è male, tanto per capire quanto è liquida.
Wire: Standard & Poor's CreditWire (SPC) Date: Feb 28 2011 15:48:14
X-S&P Downgrades Heckler & Koch To 'CCC-'; Outlook Negative
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Germany-based defense contractor Heckler & Koch GmbH has not yet addressed the refinancing of its EUR120 million bond, with about five months before maturity.
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We believe that the tight timescale, along with EUR172 million of debt at Heckler & Koch's indirect parent, continue to pose a significant execution risk to any potential refinancing options available.
-- We are lowering our long-term corporate credit rating on Heckler & Koch to 'CCC-' from 'CCC+' and we are also lowering the issue rating on the EUR120 million bond to 'CCC-' from 'CCC+'.
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The negative outlook reflects our view of the uncertainties over the refinancing process and the significant probability of default.
LONDON (Standard & Poor's) Feb. 28, 2011--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it lowered its long-term corporate credit rating on
Germany-based defense contractor Heckler & Koch GmbH (HK) to 'CCC-' from 'CCC+'. The outlook is negative.
In addition, we lowered the issue rating on HK's EUR120 million 9.25% senior secured notes to 'CCC-' from ' CCC+', in line with the corporate credit rating. The recovery rating on the senior secured notes is unchanged at '4', indicating our expectation of average (30%-50%) recovery in the event of a payment default.
"The downgrades reflect HK's inability to materially address the refinancing of its EUR120 million 9.25% senior secured notes, which mature in July 2011," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Jebby Jacob. "We believe that the limited time before maturity will result in significant execution risk to any preferred method of refinancing. This in turn raises the probability of a near-term default substantially."
In our view, the main difficulty for refinancing the senior secured notes is the EUR172 million payment-in-kind (PIK) notes (nominal value EUR100 million),issued by HK's indirect parent, Heckler & Koch Beteiligungs GmbH (HKB; not rated). This is because any repayment of the senior secured notes before their maturity would require a proportional reduction in the amount of HKB's PIK notes, which ordinarily would mature in April 2013. We understand that neither HKB nor HK have sufficient internal resources to make a proportional payment on HKB's PIK notes.
We believe that HK's ability to refinance the $120 million notes is highly dependent on the availability of liquidity in the high-yield bond market, and on whether lenders have an appetite for highly leveraged assets. In our opinion, execution risk also stems from the fact that any investor in HK's future potential debt instruments will be concerned not only by HKB's PIK notes, but also by HK's highly aggressive financial and shareholder policy and shareholder policies.
In our view, there is a high probability of a near-term default if HK does not address the refinancing risk in a timely manner. We would consider HK to have materially addressed the refinancing risk only if the company were able to obtain unconditional and irrevocable access to sufficient liquidity that could be utilized to repay its EUR120 million senior secured notes in full.
We would only consider taking a positive rating action after the successful completion of HK's refinancing strategy and after our assessment of HK's
liquidity position, financial policy, and shareholder strategy at the time of refinancing.
RELATED CRITERIA AND RESEARCH
All articles listed below are available on RatingsDirect on the Global Credit Portal, unless otherwise stated.
-- Methodology And Assumptions: Standard & Poor's Standardizes Liquidity Descriptors For Global Corporate Issuers, July 2, 2010
-- Use Of CreditWatch And Outlooks, Sept. 14, 2009
-- How Standard & Poor's Uses Its 'CCC' Rating, Dec. 12, 2008
-- Principles Of Corporate And Government Ratings, June 26, 2007
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