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Home / Business

SkyCity's debt blow-out warning

Tamsyn Parker
By Tamsyn Parker
Business Editor·NZ Herald·
13 Feb, 2019 10:24 PM2 mins to read

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Casino operator SkyCity Entertainment Group has been put on notice over its credit rating. Photo/Peter Meecham.

Casino operator SkyCity Entertainment Group has been put on notice over its credit rating. Photo/Peter Meecham.

Global ratings agency Standard and Poor's has warned SkyCity Entertainment Group's credit rating could come under pressure if its debt ratios blow out.

The casino operator which reported a first half net profit of $82.5 million, said its new convention centre would not open until the second half of 2020 - more than a year after original expectations.

In a note released after the result S&P said SkyCity had confirmed total project costs for the convention centre would not be materially above the original budget of $703 million.

But is also put the company on notice.

"Under our current forecasts, we would expect the company's debt-to-EBITDA ratio to operate between 2.5x and 2.8x at the peak of its development program in 2020.

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"Downward rating pressure could occur if we expect debt to EBITDA to sustain above 3x, due to cost overruns or project delays that impair the group's cash flow generation."

A credit down-grade could be a serious blow given SkyCity's current rating is BBB- - only just considered to be investment grade - anything below that could make it harder and more expensive for the company to raise debt.

SkyCity investors also got some surprise news with a potental buy back of 5 per cent of its shares which could be worth around $135 million.

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S&P said Sky should have sufficient balance sheet strenth to absorb the buy-back cost without its rating changing but said it was a negative from a credit perspective.

It also noted that the full buyback was dependent on the sale of the Auckland car park.

S&P expectes SkyCity to net $228 million from the sale of the car park and its Darwin Casino.

Given it has already revealed it will get around $200m from the Darwin sale meaning the Federal St car park deal is likely to net around $28m or around $14,000 for each of its 1960 car parks.

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