Moody's cuts Wrigley

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded the senior unsecured debt rating of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. to Ba2 from A1, revised its short-term rating to Not Prime from Prime-1, and assigned a stable outlook following the company's completion of its merger with Mars, Inc.

This concludes the ratings review that began on April 28, following Wrigley's announcement of the merger agreement valued at about $23 billion, the agency added.

Wrigley's Ba2 ratings reflect the increased financial leverage resulting from the incurrence of transaction related debt, Moody's noted, stating that the ratings take into account Wrigley's overall modest scale as compared to its packaged goods peers, its narrow product portfolio, and an unfavorable shift in financial policy as it relates to debtholders.

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