Moody's rates Brown Shoe notes B1

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a B1 rating to Brown Shoe Company, Inc.'s $150 million guaranteed senior unsecured notes due 2012.

Moody's also assigned a B2 issuer rating and SGL-2 speculative grade liquidity rating. The outlook is stable.

The proceeds of the senior unsecured notes, along with balance sheet cash and borrowings under the existing revolving credit facility, will be used to finance the acquisition of Bennett Footwear.

The transaction value is about $205 million. In addition, the purchase agreement contains a clause that the sellers may receive up to an additional $42.5 million in contingent payments that will be earned upon the achievement of certain performance targets.

Moody's said the ratings reflect the company's solid portfolio of established brands, multiple format platform and after the Bennett acquisition, a broad price-point coverage, which includes the low-end discount chain through the bridge lines offered at the high end department stores.

The rating also considers the recent improvement in the Famous Footwear division and Moody's opinion that the Bennett acquisition makes strategic sense by adding three solid higher-end brands.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.