Frontier Communications Corp. FTR plans to raise $2.5 billion in equity to facilitate the funding of its acquisition of Verizon Communications’ VZ wireline assets.
The company announced that it will be making a public offering that will comprise $750 million of its common stock at $0.25 per share and $1.750 billion of mandatory convertible preferred stock at $0.01 per share.
Taking into account Frontier’s equity offering move, Fitch Ratings maintained its BB rating on the company.
Frontier Communications will buy Verizon’s local wireline operations in California, Florida and Texas for a consideration of around $10–10.5 billion. These operations serve 3.7 million voice customers, 1.2 million video customers and 2.2 million broadband connections. Half of the network is running on high-quality fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) technology. The deal is likely to be closed in the first half of 2016.
Prior to this, in 2009, Verizon had divested 4.8 million rural phone lines to Frontier Communications in a stock and cash deal worth $8.6 billion.
We believe the Verizon deal will drive stronger revenue generation for Frontier, be accretive to its free cash flow growth as well as help the company maintain its dividend sustainability.
Notably, the company prioritizes network expansion and dividend payment over debt reduction. For 2015, Frontier guides capital expenditure and free cash flow in the bands of $650–$700 million and $785–$825 million, respectively. The company’s dividend payout ratio stood at a healthy 51% at the end of 2014. Moreover, the company intends to use its free cash flow to repay immediate debt and meet a long-term leverage ratio target of 2.5x.
Frontier currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Stocks to Consider
Better-ranked stocks in this sector include Cincinnati Bell Inc. CBB and BCE Inc. BCE. While Cincinnati Bell sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), BCE holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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