Moody's gives SSI B2, loan Ba3

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a B2 corporate family rating and a B2 probability-of-default rating to SSI Investments II Ltd., a new entity formed by funds sponsored by each of Berkshire Partners LLC, Advent International Corp. and Bain Capital Partners, LLC.

SSI is expected to acquire by a scheme of arrangements SkillSoft plc, Moody's said, noting that it also assigned a Ba3 rating to SSI Investments II Ltd.'s proposed $40 million senior secured revolving credit facility due 2015, Ba3 rating to its proposed $325 million senior secured term loan due 2017 and Caa1 rating to its proposed $310 million unsecured bridge facility.

The outlook is stable.

Proceeds from the proposed credit facilities combined with at least $510 million of equity from the financial sponsors will be used to fund the leveraged buyout of SkillSoft plc and to repay existing debt for total consideration of about $1.2 billion, the agency said.

The B2 rating reflects SkillSoft's high pro forma leverage of 5.5x debt/EBITDA, Moody's said.

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