Moody’s rates WPX Energy notes Ba1

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a Ba1 rating to WPX Energy Inc.'s proposed offering of $500 million senior notes due 2024.

Net proceeds will be used to repay borrowings under the company's revolving credit facility.

"This senior notes offering will refinance WPX's revolver borrowings on a long-term basis, enhancing the company's liquidity," Moody's senior vice president Pete Speer said in a news release. "Although WPX's debt levels are increasing, we expect the company's leverage metrics to remain within levels that support its Ba1 ratings as it boosts high value oil production volumes."

Moody’s said the Ba1 rating assigned to the new senior notes is based upon WPX's Ba1 corporate family rating and the company's capital structure remaining comprised solely of unsecured debt. WPX has a $1.5 billion committed revolving credit facility and will have $2 billion of senior notes outstanding, including the proposed offering. Both the credit facility and senior notes are unsecured and have no subsidiary guarantees.

The company had $515 million of borrowings outstanding on the revolver as of Sept. 24, and therefore the facility will be largely undrawn following the notes offering.

© 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.