Moody’s upgrades Ashtead, notes

Moody's Investors Service said it upgraded Ashtead Group plc's corporate family rating to Ba1 from Ba2 and probability of default rating to Ba1-PD from Ba2-PD.

Concurrently, the agency upgraded the $900 million second priority senior secured notes due 2022 and the $500 million second priority senior secured notes due 2024 issued by Ashtead Capital, Inc., a subsidiary of Ashtead Group, to Ba2 from Ba3.

The outlook is stable.

"The rating action reflects (1) Ashtead's conservative financial policy of maintaining net leverage as reported by the company between 1.5x and 2.0x, (2) the company's prolonged period of strong performance over the last 5 years resulting in de-leveraging in spite of a large capex program, and (3) the expectation for continued improvement of its business profile thanks to good growth prospects over the next 24 months due to favorable cyclical and structural market trends, as well as the company's ambitious expansion plan via greenfield openings and bolt-on acquisitions," Sebastien Cieniewski, Moody's lead analyst for Ashtead, said in a news release.

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