Moody’s Investor Service reports that total Getty Images revenue for the twelve months ended 30 September 2017 was
$836.8 million.
On November 7, 2017 Moody's assigned a B3 rating to Getty Images, Inc.'s new $54.56 million revolving credit facility (RCF) and has withdrawn the B3 rating on the old $150 million RCF. The company's Caa1 Corporate Family Rating (CFR) and stable outlook remain unchanged.
The Moody's Long-term Corporate Obligations rated Caa1 are judged to be of poor standing and subject to very high credit risk. Rating one notch higher is B3. Rating one notch lower is Caa2.
Getty's Caa1 CFR reflects Moody's view that the company will continue to operate with excessive leverage exceeding 10.0x total debt to EBITDA (includes Moody's standard adjustments) and generate neutral to modestly positive free cash flow over the rating horizon due to investments in growth and strategic initiatives.
Moody’s expects Getty to continue to shift more of its sales to Royalty-Free products at higher gross margins (or lower royalty rates), and away from Rights-Managed products where they must pay higher royalty rates. They believe Getty will need additional time to improve the operating performance of its Creative Stills segment to restore credit metrics consistent with a higher debt rating.
Selling Stock has previously estimated that Getty’s Creative Stills Division was generating around $280 million annually. The Moody’s analysis would seem to indicate that Gross sales of that division may be about the same although Getty’s profits from this division might be improving as the mix of RM/RF allows them to keep more of the gross revenue collected. Sales for this division also include iStock images that are licensed through GettyImages.com.
Revenue for the MidStock division is probably in the range of $220 to $230 million and includes iStock and Thinkstock sales. Thinkstock may represent 25% to 30% of these numbers. (For more on iStock sales trends check out
this story from 1/5/2016.)
The remaining revenue is probably $250 to $260 million for Editorial and $70 to $80 million for Video.
Moody’s says, “Though cash balances increased following the 2015 distressed exchange transaction, pricing pressures within certain business segments and funding for growth investments have led to stagnant EBITDA and high debt service resulting in adequate liquidity and limited ability to reduce debt balances. Interest expense currently accounts for almost 65% of EBITDA. While Getty expects targeted growth investments to enhance revenue and EBITDA, Moody's believes the timing and extent to which these benefits will be realized is unclear. Moody's also views the company as having greater risk related to its financial policies as we believe growth investments should be funded with equity capital given the high financial leverage.”
“Moody's expects revenue to increase in the low-single digit percentage range over the next 12-18 months, however, we do not anticipate EBITDA to grow materially until after 2018 due to ongoing investments. As of October 30th, the company's debt capital structure comprised a newly amended
$54.56 million revolver (undrawn) and $
1.8 billion covenant-lite term loan, both maturing in 2019, followed by a first-lien note (
$252.5 million outstanding) and an unsecured note (
$315.6 million outstanding), both maturing in 2020.”