Moody’s assigns AMC loan, notes Ba3

Moody's Ratings said it assigned a Ba3 rating to AMC Networks Inc.'s planned senior secured bank credit facilities, with a $175 million revolver and a $325 million term loan A due 2028, and to the proposed $700 million of senior secured notes due 2029. Concurrently, the agency downgraded AMC's senior secured bank credit facility ratings to Ba3 from Ba1 and senior unsecured ratings to B3 from B2.

The agency also affirmed AMC’s B1 corporate family rating and B1-PD probability of default rating.

“The Ba3 rating for the existing term loan, and for the proposed senior secured facilities (revolver and term loan A) as well as for the senior secured notes are one notch above AMC's CFR given their senior position in the capital structure, the collateral they enjoy against AMC's domestic restricted subsidiaries, and the significant rating lifts it receives from the cushion provided by the existing $1 billion senior unsecured notes due in February 2029. “The rating also reflects adjustments for the uncertainty regarding the evolution of the capital structure going forward that Moody's believes could lower the recovery on this class of debt. The B3 rating for the $1 billion senior unsecured notes reflects their contractual subordination to the senior secured credit debt in AMC's capital structure,” the agency said in a press release.

The proceeds and $280 million in cash from AMC's balance sheet, will be used to refinance all but $100 million of the company's term loan A maturing in February 2026 and repay all the outstanding 4¾% senior unsecured notes due August 2025.

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