Fitch assigns A to Deere notes

Fitch Ratings said it assigned a rating of A to senior unsecured notes to be issued by John Deere Cash Management SA and guaranteed by Deere & Co.

The planned debt totaling about €850 million will consist of three-year floating-rate and six-year fixed-rate notes.

Proceeds will be available to help fund the pending acquisition of Wirtgen Group, expected to close in the first fiscal quarter of 2018.

The outlook is stable.

In June, Deere announced an agreement to acquire Wirtgen Group for about €4.6 billion ($5.2 billion) including assumed debt. The acquisition will be funded with cash and the planned €850 million of debt.

“A portion of the cash will be generated by repayment of intercompany debt owed by John Deere Financial (JDF),” Fitch said in a news release.

“Due to the substantial cash used to help fund the transaction, Fitch expects financial leverage at the equipment operations will not change significantly although external debt issued by JDF will increase to replace intercompany loans from Deere.”

© 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.