February 4 (SeeNews) - Fitch Ratings said that the ratings of Romanian short-term mobility services provider Autonom will not be affected by the announced acquisition of Tiriac Operating Lease (TOL).
The acquisition of TOL, the operating leasing division of the Tiriac Group, will moderately strengthen Autonom's fleet leasing franchise but also delay planned deleveraging, Fitch Ratings said in a press release on Thursday.
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In late January, Autonom announced that it had signed an agreement with TOL’s shareholders to acquire the company for a total enterprise value of around 40 million euro ($45 million). The transaction is subject to approval by Romanian competition authority, and management expects closing by June 30.
Autonom’s acquisition of TOL will occur in conjunction with the acquisition of its larger sister company, Tiriac Leasing IFN, by Banca Transilvania.
"We expect that at closing of the transaction, Autonom’s leverage (defined as gross debt to tangible equity) will increase by about 1x compared with our previous projections," Fitch said.
According to the ratings agency, TOL’s acquisition will strengthen Autonom’s franchise within Romania’s small and fragmented but growing fleet leasing market.
In June, Fitch Ratings affirmed the long-term issuer default rating (IDR) of Autonom Services at 'B+' and upgraded its outlook on the rating to stable from negative.
Founded in 2006 in Piatra Neamț by entrepreneurs Marius Stefan and Dan Stefan, Autonom Services is part of Autonom International group which has over 500 employees and operates a fleet of over 9,000 cars.
($= 0.8865 euro)