Moody's: Atwood notes Ba3

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a Ba3 rating to Atwood Oceanics, Inc.'s proposed offering of $400 million senior unsecured notes.

Simultaneously, Moody's assigned a corporate family rating of Ba2, a probability of default rating of Ba2 and an SGL-3 speculative grade liquidity rating.

The outlook is stable.

Moody's said Atwood's Ba2 corporate family rating reflects its small but growing and high-quality offshore drilling rigs, diversified international presence, low current leverage and strong contract coverage for 2012. It is also supported by the company's long operating track record, history of conservative financial management and blue-chip customer base.

According to the agency, the rating is held back by the limited contract visibility of Atwood's existing rigs beyond 2013; the lack of contract coverage for the company's new rigs that are currently under construction, as well as mobilization and start-up risk for these newbuilds; and the expected increase in debt and financial leverage through 2014.

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