S & P seems to reiterate that view stating that " The long-term nature of pension recovery payments , together with an expected gradual increase in dividend pay-out , represents a " MORE PERMANENT REDUCTION TO DISCRETIONARY CF GENERATION . " * * * * Importantly , the rating already reflects BT ability " to maintain focus on cost savings and incremental improvement to FCF with net debt / EBITDA ratio to trend down toward 3.0x " ( from 4.2x ) .