Brazilian brewing group Companhia de Bebidas das Americas, better known as AmBev, is a key part of the newly formed Anheuser-Busch InBev. Clutching a 68 percent share of the Brazilian beer market — one of the world’s five largest – AmBev contributes much of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s sales and profits.

On Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service, the big credit-rating agency, tweaked its credit outlook on AmBev to reflect a somewhat rocky road ahead. AmBev is still solidly investment grade, but Moody’s moved its outlook to “stable” from “positive” to reflect ”likely increased pressure on margins” from challenging economics and competition in some of Ambev’s major markets.

Latin America’s biggest brewer, São Paulo-based AmBev has leading positions in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. It also has 43 percent of the market in Canada. Its business is now wrapped under the A-B InBev umbrella, so struggles or successes at AmBev could conceivably influence the fortunes of sister company Anheuser-Busch and its St. Louis operations. 

Moody’s said AmBev  will probably have increased dividend payments and lower free cash flow in the near future. Meanwhile, tight credit is either significantly restricting access to funds or increasing the cost of financing for all issuers in the region, wrote senior analyst Soummo Mukherjee.

It’s fair to point out that AmBev has some of the highest operating profit margins in the beverage industry, which give the company plenty of predictable cash flow. Analysts will continue to listen for sniffles at AmBev to see if Anheuser-Busch InBev will catch a cold. But for now, AmBev’s situation seems stable. Moody’s said it assumes that AmBev will pay its near-term debt maturities in a timely manner and improve its liquidity profile.