Altice Internacional - comment

S&P confirmed Altice International's ratings at B, moving from a negative outlook to stable. Altice International has performed in line with our expectations. Similar to our model, S&P expect positive Free cash flow for FY23, which will offset the higher interest burden following last year’s refinancing. Altice continues to operate within its financial leverage target of 4.0x-4.5x. S&P echos our concern that although EBITDA and FCF should mean leverage will reduce below this target, this capacity is likely to be used to benefit the shareholder and/or fund projects inside or outside the Altice International Perimeter.

Over the medium term, Altice International will have further refinancing requirements, which will increase the interest burden. However, there is sufficient headroom under their interest coverage ratio that would not merit a downgrade.