Moody’s changes LSB Industries to negative

Moody's Investors Service said it affirmed all ratings on LSB Industries, Inc., including the Ba3 corporate family rating, and revised the outlook to negative from stable.

The outlook revision follows the company's April 28 announcement that it reached an agreement with Starboard Value LP to avoid a proxy fight.

In Moody's opinion this agreement, which makes further significant changes to the Board, makes it more likely that LSB will split its Chemicals and Climate Control businesses, and explore a master limited partnership for its chemicals business in 2016.

"In our opinion, the announced changes to the board make it much more likely that the company will undertake the separation of the Climate Control business and potentially place some of its Chemicals assets into an MLP in 2016," Lori Harris, Moody’s assistant vice president and lead analyst for LSB Industries, said a news release.

"LSB's Board now has 13 members of whom 11 are independent and 9 have been appointed in the last 24 months; while some of these changes are clearly positive, many do not have plant level manufacturing experience, which is an area where the company has struggled over the past several years."

© 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.