Moody's reassigns Scotts ratings to new parent

Moody's Investors Service said it withdrew its senior implied rating, senior unsecured issuer rating, speculative grade liquidity rating and stable outlook on The Scotts Co. and assigned the same ratings and outlook to its new parent, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co.

Moody's assigned to Scotts Miracle-Gro and Ba1 senior implied rating, Ba3 senior unsecured issuer rating, SGL-2 speculative grade liquidity rating and a stable outlook.

Moody's affirmed the company's Ba1 rated $700 million senior secured revolving credit facility due Oct. 17, 2008, $248.8 million senior secured term loan A due Sept. 30, 2008 and $149.3 million senior secured term loan B due Sept. 30, 2010 and its Ba2 rated $200 million 6 5/8% senior subordinated notes due Nov. 15, 2013.

Moody's said the rating action follows the corporate restructuring announced on March 18, whereby holding company Scotts Miracle-Gro and its direct, wholly owned subsidiary The Scotts Co. LLC were formed, and operating company Scotts was merged into Scotts LLC.

The rating/outlook withdrawals and assignments reflect the assumption of debt by the new holding company entity, with upstream guarantees from the key operating subsidiaries, according to Moody's.

© 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.