Moody’s rates Pilgrim's Pride facilities Ba3

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a Ba3 rating to Pilgrim's Pride Corp.’s $1.55 billion of bank facilities that closed May 9, consisting of a $750 million senior secured asset-based revolving credit facility expiring May 2022 and an $800 million senior secured term loan due May 2022.

The agency also affirmed all of Pilgrim's other ratings, including its Ba3 corporate family rating, Ba3-PD probability of default rating and B2 senior unsecured debt rating.

The outlook is stable.

Net proceeds from the new bank facility were used primarily to refinance existing senior secured debt outstanding. The new facility replaced a $700 million asset-based senior secured revolving credit facility that had $315 million of loans and $43 million of letters of credit outstanding as of March 26, 2017, and a $500 million senior secured term loan. The replaced facilities were not previously rated by Moody's.

The Ba3 senior secured debt instrument ratings reflect the preponderance of secured debt in Pilgrim's debt capitalization structure – over 70% of total debt instruments. As a result, these instrument ratings are the same as the Ba3 corporate family rating, the agency explained.

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