Moody’s trims Imperial Metals

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded Imperial Metals Corp.'s corporate family rating to Caa3 from Caa2, and downgraded and appended a limited default designation to its probability of default rating to Caa3-PD/LD from Caa2-PD.

The agency affirmed its Caa3 senior unsecured rating and its SGL-4 speculative grade liquidity rating.

The outlook remains negative.

Moody's said it views the extension of the maturity dates of Imperial's first-lien senior credit facility to Feb. 15, 2019 from Oct. 1, its second-lien credit facility to Feb. 15, 2019 from Dec. 1 and its $26 million bridge loan to Feb. 28, 2019 from Jan. 5, 2019 as a distressed exchange and limited default.

The maturity extension represented a distressed exchange because loss and default avoidance were present as part of the extension, the agency said.

“The downgrade reflects Moody's view that a restructuring is likely to occur in the near future as most of its debt matures in February and March 2019, leverage is near 10x, and a special committee of the board has been formed to look at all strategic alternatives,” Jamie Koutsoukis, Moody's vice president, said in a news release.

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