Moody’s reviews AbbVie

Moody's Investors Service said it placed the Baa1 senior unsecured ratings of AbbVie Inc. under review for downgrade.

This action follows the announcement that AbbVie made an offer to acquire Pharmacyclics Inc. for about $21 billion in cash and stock.

The review was prompted by the large increase in financial leverage, based on the anticipation of significant incremental debt to fund the cash portion of the deal. Moody's estimates pro forma debt/EBITDA of about 4.5 times for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, compared to 2.3 times for AbbVie before the transaction.

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