Fitch: AmBev outlook negative

Fitch Ratings said it affirmed Companhia de Bebidas das Americas SA's foreign- and local-currency issuer default ratings and unsecured notes due 2011, 2013 and 2017 at BBB and its national scale rating and senior unsecured notes due 2009 and 2012 at AAA(bra).

The outlook is negative.

Fitch originally placed AmBev on Rating Watch negative in June following the announcement that InBev NV/SA will acquire Anheuser-Busch Cos., Inc. in a highly leveraging transaction. InBev's management stated at that time that the transaction would be carried out at the InBev level and that debt would not be placed at the level of AmBev, its subsidiary.

The agency said the negative outlook reflects the strong linkage between the credit quality of AmBev and InBev and factors in the recent turmoil in financial markets and more restricted access to capital markets, which could make InBev's targeted asset sales more challenging.

It also considers a slowdown in global gross domestic product growth rates, which could lower the company's EBITDA in some markets and could reduce the amount of free cash flow that it will have available for debt reduction in 2009, Fitch added.

For the last 12 months ended June 30, the net debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 0.9 times.

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