Moody’s rates SSI loans B1, Caa1

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned WWC Holdings Corp. (SSI Opinionology/NewCo LLC) a B2 corporate family rating and B1 and Caa1 ratings to its new senior secured first- and second-lien term loans, respectively.

The outlook is stable.

Proceeds from the term loans (a new revolver will remain undrawn), along with equity contributions from financial sponsor HGGC, LLC, will be used to fund HGGC's roughly $500 million leveraged buyout of SSI.

Moody’s said the B2 corporate family rating reflects SSI’s high leverage and good scale and market position in the market-survey industry. At just over 6 times, SSI has high debt-to-EBITDA leverage (including Moody's standard adjustments), especially when compared to its primary competitor, Research Now, in the narrow but growing business-to-consumer market-survey segment.

Although SSI has a small revenue base, the company has good scale relative to most of its primary competitors, and has a higher EBITDA margin relative to Research Now, whose revenues are substantially greater than SSI's.

Moody's said it believes SSI has a more robust, integrated business model that allows for an efficient rollout of its market research customers' surveys across all modes of data gathering – online, mobile (including smart phones and tablets), and computer assisted telephone interviews.

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