Rome, December 6th, 2017 – Standard & Poor’s today announced that it has raised the long-term rating on Enel S.p.A. (“Enel” or the “Company”) to “BBB+” from the previous “BBB”.
The rating agency also confirmed its short-term rating on Enel at “A-2”. The outlook is stable.
The change in Enel’s rating follows the recent presentation of its 2018-2020 Strategic Plan, whose features were welcomed by Standard & Poor’s in its rating on the Company.
More specifically, Standard & Poor’s expressed its appreciation of Enel Group’s investment focus on networks and renewable generation, as well as the effort to further simplify the Group’s corporate structure and the expected cost optimisation through the digitalisation of assets.
Standard & Poor’s also noted that Enel has a solid track record in implementing targets set out in the Strategic Plan, as well as in managing its debt and liquidity position. The rating agency expects that Enel will be able to achieve a structural improvement in the ratio of funds from operations to financial debt on a consolidated basis, which should increase to more than 22% over the 2018-2020 period, thanks to the growth in EBITDA and the stabilisation of debt.
The improvement in the Enel rating also reflects the shift in investments in the 2018-2020 Strategic Plan from emerging markets to the mature economies of Europe and North and Central America. More than 75% of total investments over the Plan period is expected to be concentrated in these areas, with a subsequent reduction in the related risk profile.
Enel S.p.A. provides for the dissemination to the public of regulated information by using SDIR NIS, managed by BIt Market Services, a London Stock Exchange Group's company, with registered office at Milan, Piazza degli Affari, 6. For the storage of regulated information made available to the public, Enel S.p.A. has adhered, as from July 1st, 2015 to the authorized mechanism denominated “NIS-Storage”, available at the address www.emarketstorage.com, managed by the above mentioned BIt Market Services S.p.A. and authorized by CONSOB with the resolution No. 19067 of November 19th, 2014. From May 19th 2014 to June 30th 2015 Enel S.p.A. used the authorized mechanism for the storage of regulated information denominated “1Info”, available at the address www.1info.it, managed by Computershare S.p.A. with registered office in Milan and authorized by CONSOB with resolution No. 18852 of April 9th, 2014