Moody’s cuts Edgewell, notes to Ba2

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded Edgewell Personal Care Co.'s corporate family rating and probability of default rating to Ba2 and Ba2-PD from Ba1 and Ba1-PD, respectively.

Concurrently, the agency downgraded the ratings on Edgewell's senior unsecured notes to Ba2 from Ba1 and lowered the speculative grade liquidity rating to SGL-2 from SGL-1.

The outlook is stable.

These actions reflect the company's weakened credit metrics stemming from weaker than expected earnings, debt financed share repurchases and modestly weaker liquidity profile, Moody’s said. Though Edgewell generates solid free cash flow, the company is increasingly reliant on its senior unsecured revolver – in part to fund share repurchases.

Moody's said it believes that this reflects a more aggressive financial policy than it had expected at the time of the spin-off of the battery business in June 2015.

© 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.