Moody's changes Levi Strauss view to positive

Moody's Investors Service said it revised Levi Strauss and Co.'s outlook to positive from stable, assigned an SGL-1 speculative grade liquidity rating to the company and affirmed its corporate family rating at Ba3, probability of default rating at Ba3-PD and senior notes at B1 (LGD4, 63%, changed from 64%).

The agency said the outlook revision reflects the company's meaningful improvement in leverage over the course of 2013 to 3.9 times and its improved operating margins. Moody's anticipates that leverage will continue to improve as the company uses operating cash flow to reduce debt.

Levi Strauss' Ba3 rating reflects the iconic nature of the Levi's trademark, Levi Strauss' global reach with sales in more than 110 countries and meaningful scale with net revenues in excess of $4.6 billion, Moody's said.

The rating is constrained by the company's limited product diversification and its exposure to volatile input costs that can have a meaningful impact on earnings and cash flows, 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.