Moody's cuts Harsco

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded Harsco Corp.’s corporate family rating to Ba3 from Ba1 and probability of default rating to Ba3-PD from Ba1-PD. Moody's also lowered Harsco's senior secured bank credit facility to Ba2 from Baa3 and the senior unsecured notes to B1 from Ba2. The speculative grade liquidity rating was also downgraded to SGL-3 from SGL-2.

"Harsco's operations and credit metrics have underperformed relative to our initial expectations and is the main driver of the downgrade," said Griselda Bisono, a Moody's vice president and analyst, in a press release.

"The company's weak performance is further exacerbated by the debt-financed acquisition of Stericycle, Inc.'s environmental solutions business (ESOL) in April 2020," said Bisono.

The SGL’s downgrade reflects Moody's expectation of increased capital expenditures within the company's environmental services segments over the next 18 months, which will constrain free cash flow, the agency said.

The outlook remains negative.

© 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.