Moody’s assigns Bite, bonds B2

Moody’s Investors Service said it assigned a first-time B2 corporate family rating and a B2-PD probability of default rating to PLT VII Finance Sarl (Bite). Concurrently, Moody’s assigned a B2 rating to Bite’s proposed €620 million of senior secured bonds due 2026.

The proceeds, together with €28.5 million cash on hand, will be used to repay €449 million of debt and to pay €199 million in shareholder distributions and transaction costs.

“The B2 rating reflects Bite’s well-established market positions in Lithuania and Latvia and its strong growth prospects supported by its convergent and cross-selling strategy, as well as by consolidation opportunities in the region,” said Agustin Alberti, a Moody’s vice president, senior analyst and lead analyst for Bite, in a press release.

“The rating will be initially weakly positioned because of the high leverage with Moody’s adjusted gross debt to EBITDA expected to be at 5.4x by year-end 2020,” added Alberti.

The outlook is stable. The outlook reflects Moody’s expectation Bite will report a strong operating performance, with moderate revenue growth from 2021 and small margin improvement, the agency said.

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