OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings says that there is no impact on Intralot S.A.'s (Intralot B+/Negative) ratings resulting from the recent downgrade of Greece's Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to 'CCC' from 'B' and the Country Ceiling to 'B-' from 'BB'.

We view the downgrade of Greece's sovereign ratings as neutral for Intralot's ratings given its limited linkage with Greece, its contractual requirement to maintain a large portion of cash outside Greek banks and its manageable refinancing risk, with no debt maturity until 2017.

Under the terms of its bank facilities, Intralot cannot keep more than 40% of cash on deposit with Greek banks and is further limited to keeping no more than 20% of cash with any one Greek bank. Currently, less than 2% of the group's cash is deposited in Greece.

In addition to revenue diversification, Fitch also looks closely at the geographical earnings and cash flow profiles of eurozone corporates in assessing the linkages with their respective sovereigns. Intralot generates only 5% of its revenue and less than 10% of its EBITDA in Greece with the rest spread across over 40 countries worldwide. Although its management and a major proportion of its software developers and machine designers are based in Greece, these employees account for only 15% of its total staff. In addition, Fitch notes that the majority of Intralot's business is transacted outside of Greece.

Intralot has been restructuring its business and operations to further reduce its reliance on its Greek operational base, notably by diversifying its recruitment to more non-Greek nationals, broadening its management and personnel base.

Lastly refinancing risk is manageable, as Intralot does not have any meaningful debt maturing until 2017 when its EUR200m bank facilities mature, whilst its bonds are not due to mature until August 2018 at the earliest.