US Manufacturers Look Forward to Stable 2010

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 11/30/2009

Fitch Ratings expects the corporate ratings of US tobacco companies to remain stable next year as those companies continue to generate sizeable free cash flow as a result of high operating margins, according to a Business Wire story. The ratings are further supported by the companies' significant liquidity positions with respect to manageable upcoming long-term debt maturities. "Due to the sizable cash flow generated by industry participants, past credit rating changes have mostly been precipitated by events, such as adverse legal judgments and merger and acquisition activity," said Christopher Collins, associate director at Fitch. "Fitch believes that the risk of an event being material enough to cause a change in existing tobacco company ratings in 2010 is nominal." Enditem