(Alliance News) - Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday has affirmed the Baa1 guaranteed senior unsecured debt ratings of RELX PLC's guaranteed subsidiaries.
At the same time, Moody's has assigned a Baa1 issuer rating to analytics and decision tools provider RELX. The outlook on all ratings is stable.
"The ratings affirmation reflects RELX's positive operating momentum in the first half of 2021 backed by the recurring revenue from the wide range of electronic information-based analytics and decision tools in its key divisions - Scientific, Technical and Medical, Risk and Legal - despite its Exhibition business being severely hit by the coronavirus-driven disruptions", said Gunjan Dixit, Moody's vice president & senior credit officer.
The stable rating outlook reflects Moody's expectation that RELX can maintain a positive operating momentum from 2021 onwards while managing discretionary outflows so that it its ratios fall in line with the Baa1 rating.
Going forward, Moody's said if can upgrade the ratings if RELX demonstrates visible improvements in organic revenue growth rates, as well as operating profit margin.
Downward rating pressure could arise if RELX shows a pronounced and sustained weakness in operating performance.
RELX shares closed 0.4% higher in London on Tuesday at 2,173.00 pence each.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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