- Aerodom's ultimate owner, Bermuda-based Latin American Airports Holdings, will guarantee the issuance.
- We are assigning our 'BB-' corporate credit rating to Latin American Airports Holdings and a 'BB-' issue-level preliminary rating to Aerodom's proposed senior secured notes.
- The stable outlook incorporates the manageable debt burden on a consolidated basis in the short to medium term and our expectation that cash flows from Aerodom and Fumisa, will improve during the next two to three years.
MEXICO CITY (Standard & Poor's) Oct. 25, 2012--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services assigned its 'BB-' corporate credit rating to Latin American Airports Holdings Ltd. (LAAH). We also assigned a 'BB-' preliminary rating to Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI S.A's (Aerodom) seven-year senior secured notes for up to $550 million. The outlook is stable. The assignment of a final rating will be subject to our review of final documentation, including the guarantee contract.
The rating on LAAH reflects the credit quality of its operating subsidiaries and the company's "fair" business risk profile and "aggressive" financial risk profile. In addition, the preliminary rating on Aerodom's notes reflects our view of the company's controlling shareholder's creditworthiness, which provides an unconditional and irrevocable guarantee of both principal and interest payments. Our equalization of the rating on the notes with the rating on LAAH reflects our view that the guarantee qualifies for rating substitution treatment.
Advent International Corp., which owns 86% of LAAH, founded the company in 2007 to invest in airport infrastructure assets in Latin America. The company's assets are Aerodom and Inmobiliaria Fumisa S.A. de C.V. (Fumisa), both of which Advent controls 100% of shares.