S&P Global Ratings on May 25 downgraded SIX Payment Services (Austria) GmbH's long- and short-term issuer credit ratings to A/A-1 from A+/A-1+ and placed them on CreditWatch with negative implications, following SIX Group AG's agreement with Worldline SA to sell the company.
At the same time, the rating agency affirmed the AA-/A-1+ long- and short-term issuer credit ratings of SIX Group, SIX x-clear AG and SIX SIS AG, with negative outlooks.
S&P said the ratings actions reflect its view that, following the transaction's completion, SIX Payment Services will no longer directly benefit from the group's support and that it would become part of a less creditworthy business in Worldline, which is solely focused on payment services.
The agency said it expects to resolve the CreditWatch on SIX Payment Services in the next three to six months once it becomes certain that the transaction will be completed, noting that it will likely lower the company's ratings by several notches. S&P said, however, that it expects to affirm the ratings should the deal fall through.
This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings, a separately managed division of S&P Global. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings. The original S&P Global Ratings documents referred to in this news brief can be found here.
