Moody’s provides Ba1 to Ashland loans

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned Ba1 ratings to Ashland Inc.'s new $1.1 billion five-year senior unsecured term loan A and $1.2 billion senior unsecured revolver.

Moody's also affirmed the company's corporate family rating and senior unsecured ratings at Ba1 and the probability of default rating at Ba1-PD; the speculative-grade liquidity rating was affirmed at SGL-1.

The outlook is stable.

Proceeds are expected to be used to fund contributions to the company's U.S. pension plans and to finance the tender offer for the company's $600 million in 3% senior notes due March 15, 2016, which was announced June 16, and for general corporate purposes. Some or all of the notes are likely to be tendered in the near-term, while the balance not tendered is expected to be repaid at maturity.

"While the effect of this tender and financing will increase reported leverage to 3.3 from 2.8 times, Moody's adjusted leverage, which includes the unfunded pension liability as a standard adjustment to debt, will remain unchanged on a pro forma basis," Joseph Princiotta, Moody's vice president and lead analyst for Ashland, said in a news release.

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