Imark
Forumer storico
Qualcuno sta seguendo l'andamento dei Bond Toyota?
Ci sono ripercussioni relativamente alle ultime notizie che la riguardano?
Ho letto della possibilità di un downgrade di S&P.....
I rendimenti restano decisamente magri, anche perché sono pieni di liquidità e dovrebbero riuscire a tornare all'utile in anticipo rispetto ai tempi originariamente previsti...
Moody's reviews Toyota's Aa1 rating for possible downgrade
Tokyo, February 09, 2010 -- Moody's Investors Service has placed the Aa1 senior unsecured long-term rating of Toyota Motor Corporation and its supported subsidiaries under review for possible downgrade. The company's Prime-1 short-term rating is not affected by this rating action.
The ratings for the following entities are affected:
Toyota Motor Corporation
... Toyota Financial Services (S. Africa) (Pty) Ltd.
This action is prompted by Moody's concern that the growing scale of Toyota's product problems and associated recalls may have longer term impacts on its brand equity, pricing power and market share in key markets. This raises significant risk that the recovery in the company's earnings -- whilst progressing -- may not continue or will be at a much slower pace than originally contemplated and outside the tolerance level for its current rating.
Toyota's quality issues have expanded to the brakes on its Prius model, following problems with floor mats and accelerator pedal malfunctions across multiple models. At the same time, the number of models, units, and components affected has risen, and the impacted market areas expanded, from the U.S. to Europe, China and Japan.
As a result, Moody's is concerned that these problems may significantly damage Toyota's brand and its reputation for high product quality over the medium to long term.
Toyota announced third quarter results for FYE 3/2010 and raised its full year guidance on February 4. Moody's estimates that in the third quarter the company's operating profit margin recovered to close to 5% (excluding one-time costs), because of a rise in unit sales and a reduction in costs. According to its new full-year guidance, the company will record net profits in FYE 3/2010 for the first time in two years.
This comes after factoring in JPY100 billion costs for recalls related to the floor mats and accelerator pedals, and the JPY70-80 billion impact on profits as a result of declining sales.
However, in Moody's view, Toyota's weak earnings may continue for the medium to long term -- when compared to our original expectations - because of the additional costs for dealing with the recall as well as immediate quality control issues, a decline in its share in major markets, a delay in the recovery of unit sales, and downward pressure on vehicle prices, should the current issues expand or persist.
This, in turn, raises considerable uncertainty as to the operating and financial profile of the company in the coming year and possibly beyond.
Nevertheless, Toyota's abundant liquidity allows it an extremely high degree of financial flexibility. Thus, Moody's believes that the company's balance sheet will be able to absorb related costs.
Moody's review will focus on the company's progress in dealing with the immediate implications of its current problems as well as longer term issues. In particular we will focus on the likely range of costs for the recalls and to defend against litigation, and the likely magnitude and duration of the impact on vehicle sales and prices. We will seek to develop a reasonable set of assumptions for Toyota's revenue, market share and profitability over the medium term as well as consider the potential for outcomes significantly worse.
In determining if a downgrade is appropriate we will consider whether our revised set of assumptions is consistent with our previous base case of an ongoing strengthening in profitability from 2010 onwards as well as review whether the downside risk to achieving that base case is such that a lower rating would be more appropriate. We view the biggest challenge is how quickly Toyota can resolve such a significant quality issue, minimize the negative impact on its brand, and restore its product competitiveness.
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Moody's last rating action with respect to Toyota Motor Corporation was taken on May 13, 2009, when it affirmed the Aa1 senior unsecured debt rating on the company and its supported subsidiaries, and retained a negative outlook.
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