Moody's downgrades Immucor

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded Immucor, Inc.'s corporate family rating to Caa1 from B3 and probability of default rating to Caa1-PD from B3-PD.

Moody's also said it downgraded the first-lien senior secured bank credit facility rating to B2 (LGD 3) from B1 (LGD 3) and the senior unsecured rating to Caa3 (LGD 5) from Caa2 (LGD 5).

The outlook is stable.

The downgrades reflect the company's inability to improve earnings over the last year, weakened cash flow and liquidity and rising refinancing risk, the agency said.

The company has recently launched several new products, which may help stabilize market share following a period of competitive losses due to delays in launching new products, Moody's said.

However the agency said it views the blood typing business as a very slow growth, highly competitive market.

That is why Moody's said it believes Immucor's earnings growth outlook is modest, making it challenging to significantly improve leverage ahead of its 2021 debt maturity.

The ratings are constrained by Immucor's very high financial leverage, which is expected to remain at higher than 8x over the next 12- to 18-months, the agency said.

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