Moody's cuts SeaWorld loan to Ba3, rates add-on Ba3

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, Inc.'s corporate family and probability of default ratings to B1 from Ba3 and its senior secured credit facility rating to Ba3 from Ba2.

The outlook is stable.

Moody's also assigned a Ba3 rating to the $500 million term loan B add-on and updated the loss given default assessments to reflect the revised debt mix.

Moody's said the downgrade follows the company's announcement that it plans to fund a $500 million dividend to its equity sponsors, led by the Blackstone Group, from the proceeds of a $500 million add-on to its existing term loan B.

The downgrade reflects the meaningful increase in leverage resulting from the transaction, increase in refinancing risk in 2016/2017 and future event risk related to use of cash flow and leverage by equity sponsor Blackstone, the agency said.

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