Moody's drops A&P to SGL-3, view to negative

Moody's Investors Service said it changed The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Inc.'s (A&P) outlook to negative from stable and lowered the company's speculative-grade liquidity rating to SGL-3 from SGL-1.

The company's debt ratings are affirmed, including its corporate family rating at B3 and senior unsecured notes at Caa1, the agency said.

The key driver of the downgrade in the speculative-grade liquidity rating and the change in outlook for the long term ratings to negative is the imminent reduction in what had been a substantial cash cushion to mitigate the risk of any future deterioration in cash flow generation, given that A&P has announced a special cash dividend of $7.25 per share, or $300 million, 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.