French Postal Operator La Poste's Proposed Perpetual Deeply Subordinated Hybrid Notes Assigned 'BB' Rating
- France's postal services provider La Poste plans to issue perpetual
deeply subordinated notes of benchmark size (over €500 million).
- We assess the proposed securities as having intermediate equity content.
- We are assigning our 'BB' rating to the proposed notes, reflecting their
subordination and optional interest deferability.
PARIS (S&P Global Ratings) April 13, 2018--S&P Global Ratings said today that
it has assigned its 'BB' long-term issue rating to the proposed perpetual
deeply subordinated hybrid notes to be issued by French postal services
operator La Poste (A/Stable/A-1).
The completion and size of the transaction will be subject to market
conditions, but we anticipate a benchmark issuance of over €500 million. La
Poste plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes. Assuming a €1
billion new issue, we estimate the ratio of outstanding hybrids to adjusted
capitalization at approximately 14%, which is below the 15% limit for us to
view the instruments as having intermediate equity content. If the ratio were
to exceed 15%, the equity content would reduce to minimal for the portion of
the notes that exceeds 15%.
The 'BB' rating on the proposed hybrid notes is two notches below our
assessment of La Poste's stand-alone credit profile, reflecting their
subordination and optional interest deferability. Our issuer credit rating on
La Poste reflects our expectation that there is a very high likelihood that it
would receive timely and sufficient extraordinary state support if it faced
financial distress. However, we do not rate the proposed hybrid bonds based on
our issuer credit rating on La Poste because we see potential impediments to
the French government's ability to support the hybrid notes, if necessary.
We classify the proposed notes as having intermediate equity content until
their first call date occurring more than five years after the issue date,
because they meet our criteria in terms of their subordination, permanence,
and optional deferability during this period. Consequently, in our calculation
of La Poste's credit ratios, we treat 50% of the principal outstanding and
accrued interest on the hybrids as equity rather than debt. We also treat 50%
of the related payments on these notes as equivalent to a common dividend.
KEY FACTORS IN OUR ASSESSMENT OF THE INSTRUMENTS' PERMANENCE
Although the proposed notes have no final maturity date, the issuer may redeem
them for cash on the first call date (occurring more than five years after the
issue date), and on each interest payment date thereafter. In addition, the
notes may be purchased at any time in the open market. The issuer intends to
redeem or repurchase the notes only to the extent that they are replaced with
instruments with equivalent equity content, but is not obliged to do so. In
addition, the notes may be called at any time for tax, rating, and accounting
events, or if 75% or more of the notes have already been redeemed.
KEY FACTORS IN OUR ASSESSMENT OF THE INSTRUMENTS' DEFERABILITY
In our view, the issuer's option to defer payment on the proposed notes is
discretionary. This means that the issuer may elect not to pay accrued
interest on an interest payment date. La Poste retains the option to defer
interest throughout the life of the notes. However, any outstanding deferred
interest is cumulative and will ultimately be settled in cash if, for example,
the issuer paid interest on the next interest payment date, or declared a
dividend. We see this as a negative factor, but this condition remains
acceptable under our methodology, given that the issuer can still choose to
defer on the next interest payment date after settling a previously deferred
amount.
KEY FACTORS IN OUR ASSESSMENT OF THE INSTRUMENTS' SUBORDINATION
The proposed notes (and coupons) would constitute unsecured and subordinated
obligations of the issuer, and would rank senior only to the issuer's ordinary
shares and preference share, and pari passu with the outstanding $500 million
hybrid instrument.