ZURICH, Switzerland – Barry Callebaut Group, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, has announced on January 26, 2023, that Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) changed the Group’s long-term issuer rating outlook to ‘positive’ from outlook ‘stable’.
The outlook on all senior unsecured long-term ratings assigned to the bonds issued by Barry Callebaut Services N.V. has also been changed to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’. At the same time, Moody’s affirmed the ‘Baa3’ ratings.
Paolo Leschiutta, Senior Vice President and lead analyst for Barry Callebaut at Moody’s stated: “The outlook change to ‘positive’ reflects Barry Callebaut’s strong operating performance and our expectation that its profitability and cash flow generation will be relatively immune to the deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, leading to further strengthening in its credit metrics over the next 12 to 18 months.”
Ben De Schryver, CFO of Barry Callebaut said: ““We are pleased with Moody’s credit outlook change. It validates the successful strengthening of our balance sheet and the focus on accelerated value creation which is reflected in our new mid-term guidance*.
*On average for the 3-year period 2023/24 to 2025/26: +4-6% volume growth and +8-10% EBIT growth in local currencies, with further ROIC improvement, barring any major unforeseeable events.
