Moody's rates Scripps loans Ba2

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a Ba2 corporate family rating, a Ba2-PD probability of default rating and an SGL-1 speculative grade liquidity rating to E.W. Scripps Co. and Ba2 (LGD3, 40%) ratings to its proposed $75 million first-lien senior secured revolving credit facility and $200 million first-lien senior secured term loan. The outlook is stable.

Most of the proceeds of the new debt is expected to fund the refinancing of $184.2 million of existing debt.

The agency said the Ba2 corporate family rating reflects E.W. Scripps' moderately high debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 3.2 times and a minimum of low double-digit percentage free cash flow-to-debt ratios pro forma for the proposed refinancing.

Good revenue growth for television operations and improving segment EBITDA margins support debt ratings and offset declines in ad revenues for newspaper operations with segment EBITDA margins below its publishing peers, Moody's said.

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