Moody’s downgrades SUSE

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded SUSE SA's corporate family rating and probability of default rating to B2 and B2-PD from B1 and B1-PD, respectively. Concurrently, the agency lowered to B2 from B1 the rating of the instruments issued by Marcel BidCo LLC, Marcel Bidco GmbH and Marcel Lux Debtco Sarl, and assigned a B2 rating to the planned facilities, including the debt to be issued at Marcel Bidco GmbH (euro tranche) and Marcel Bidco (dollar tranche).

The outlook is now stable. Previously the rating was on review for downgrade. This rating action concludes the review for downgrade started on Aug. 23.

“The rating action reflects the significant leverage increase implied by the proposed $525 million equivalent new debt issued by SUSE to finance the voluntary public purchase offer launched by EQT AB's controlled Marcel LUX III Sarl. Pro forma for the transaction Moody's-adjusted debt increases to around $1.3 billion, whilst Moody's-adjusted leverage weakens to 6.7x from 3.9x for the last 12 months (LTM) to July 2023, slightly above the B2 rating downgrade trigger of 6.5x,” Moody’s said in a statement.

The stable outlook reflects expectations that the company's credit metrics will stay in line with the B2 CFR triggers over the next 12 to 18 months, the agency said.

© 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.