Moody’s rates Ardagh notes Ba3, B3

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a Ba3 instrument rating to the $998 million equivalent senior secured notes due 2026 and a B3 instrument rating to the $800 million senior unsecured notes due 2027, both to be issued by Ardagh Packaging Finance plc, a subsidiary of ARD Securities Finance Sarl.

Concurrently, Moody's said it affirmed Ardagh's B2 corporate family rating, B2-PD probability of default rating.

It also affirmed the Ba3 rating of the existing senior secured notes and the B3 rating of the existing senior unsecured notes issued by Ardagh Packaging Finance plc and the Caa2 rating of the existing PIK notes issued by ARD Finance SA and Ardagh.

The outlook was changed to negative from stable.

Proceeds from the new $1.798 billion senior secured and unsecured notes due 2026 and 2027 will be used to refinance the existing senior unsecured notes due 2024, to pay for the transaction costs as well as to provide a $12 million cash overfund.

The agency said the ratings consider that “leverage at close, pro forma for the current refinancing and the disposition of its food & specialty division remains very high for the rating category, slightly increasing to 8x debt/EBITDA from 7.8x LTM.”

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