Leading rating agency, Agusto & Co, on Friday, affirmed A-rating for food services giant in Nigeria, Sundry Foods Limited (SFL), with a stable outlook.
This comes nearly three weeks after an international rating agency, Global Credit Ratings (GCR), accorded SFL the national scale long-term and short-term issuer ratings of A-(NG) and A2 (NG) with revised outlooks to positive.
“Agusto & Co upgrades the rating assigned to Sundry Foods Limited to A,” Mr Nduka Mokwunye, Head, Marketing at SFL, announced in a statement quoting the credit agency’s latest report.
In the report, the rating agency noted that the upgrade reflected SFL’s good profitability, moderate leverage, adequate working capital, as well as good and sustainable cash flow position, which it said was supported by the company’s favourable trade terms with its customers and creditors.
The rating agency further said other factors that influenced the latest SFL rating included aggressive expansion drive, as well as the company’s good market position in the capacity of a leading player in the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry, with a stable and experienced management team.
Other key rating drivers the agency highlighted in the report include short-term and long-term financing surpluses of N1.2bn and N935mn respectively as at December 31, 2021, which SFL recorded that resulted in an overall working capital surplus of N2.1bn which the agency considered adequate.
Speaking on the new feat, SFL’s Managing Director, Mr Ebele Enunwa, said the latest rating had reinforced the fact that “we are a credit-worthy company in the country with a very good investment potential for many local and international investors and financiers.”
