FRONTIER TELECOMMUNICATIONS
A QUICK VIEW ON THE STRUCTURE POST NUMBERS
TRADE DETAILS
Frontier Telecommunications (FTR), the US cable and communications company, reported 4Q17 and FY17 numbers yesterday post market close. Frontier Communications bonds have been under pressure since hitting a high in August 2016. FTR 11% 2025, just to give an example, traded close to 110% in August 2016. By beginning of 2018 they traded in the low 70s. This move was mostly driven by the high debt load of the company following some meaningful acquisitions and the secular decline of the business.
Bonds initially reacted positively on yesterday’s numbers and were up 2-3pts on the back of better than expected numbers (vs. low expectations) and the announcement of the management to suspend dividend payments. While suspended dividends should help in the short term for meeting short-dated maturities we think it takes a bit more to repair the balance sheet longer term, given the material debt load (USD 17bn) and a leverage ratio of 4.59x.
The most important metric, subscriber churn rate, improved slightly and is trending in the right direction but remains at elevated levels. EBITDA was reported in line with guidance and the net loss for the quarter of USD 1.03bn was negatively affected by a goodwill impairment, partially offset by a tax benefit.
Results have been taken as a positive by fixed income investors and the trend is pointing towards the right direction. Nevertheless we think that Frontier is still suffering from losing subscribers in their Legacy markets, elevated debt levels and a secular decline of the business they are operating in. We think that Frontier may use current tailwind in order to start refinancing their short term maturities. According to market sources, FTR may come with a secured deal, potentially 2020 or 2021 maturity in order to refinance shorter dated bonds. Should this refinancing turn out to be successful and given that FTR is a “quarter-to-quarter” story, we are becoming increasingly positive on the short-end of the maturity structure while turning more negative on the longer end. While Frontier’s debt profile appears to be manageable until 2020, the company will have to refinance USD 922mm in 2020 and almost USD 3bn in 2021.
Conclusion:
We think that Frontier should be able to refinance short-dated maturities following recent numbers. Capex as well as debt maturities are manageable in the near-term and should be covered by free cash flow and the potentially upcoming refinancing. However, we would use current strength and the positive tone in order to sell bonds with maturity beyond 2021, given the potentially new layer of secured debt, high indebtedness, a turnaround story with some question marks and the debt wall being hit by 2020 with refinancing likely to become an issue unless business turns around dramatically.