Moody’s raises Darden to Baa3

Moody's Investors Service said it upgraded the senior unsecured ratings of Darden Restaurants, Inc. to Baa3 from Ba1 and short-term commercial paper rating to Prime-3 from Not Prime.

In addition, the agency withdrew its Ba1 corporate family rating, Ba1-PD probability of default rating and SGL-2 speculative grade liquidity rating.

The outlook is stable. This concludes the review initiated on April 8.

Moody's said the upgrade reflects Darden's improved earnings performance with positive same store sales trends at both of its core brands, Olive Garden and LongHorn and Moody's view that the company's financial policies will remain moderate going forward with a balanced approach towards its capital structure and shareholder returns.

The upgrade also reflects Darden's material scale, geographic reach and brand diversity within the U.S. and strong liquidity.

"We expect Darden's operating earnings will continue to improve driving stronger and more stable credit metrics while maintaining balanced financial policies," Moody's senior credit officer Bill Fahy said in a news release.

© 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.