Moody’s assigns Baa3 to ITV notes

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a Baa3 rating to the proposed benchmark (around £500 million or equivalent) British pound- or euro-denominated senior unsecured notes being issued by ITV plc.

ITV’s senior unsecured issuer rating, as well as the ratings on all of its existing senior unsecured debt remain unchanged, at Baa3.

The outlook is stable.

Proceeds from the notes will be used to refinance some or all of: (a) The £161 million bond maturity in January 2017; (b) existing drawings under the revolver; and (c) the bi-lateral loan facilities (£250 million maturing in March/June 2017). Remainder of the proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

While there will be some grossing up of cash on ITV's balance sheet until the debt repayments are addressed, Moody's said it currently expects the re-financing transaction to end up being largely leverage neutral.

The note issuance will help improve ITV's liquidity and debt maturity profile.

"While ITV's advertising revenues is likely to remain under pressure in 2017, the company's Baa3 rating is supported by the expected good organic growth in its content business," Gunjan Dixit, Moody's vice president, senior analyst and lead analyst for ITV, said in a news release.

© 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.