Moody’s rates Western Refining loan B1

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a B1 rating to Western Refining, Inc.'s (WNR) proposed $500 million first-lien secured term loan B-2 and affirmed its B1 corporate family rating, B1 term loan rating and B3 unsecured notes rating.

The speculative grade liquidity rating was lowered to SGL-2 from SGL-1.

The outlook is stable.

Proceeds from the term loan will be used to partially fund Western Refining’s pending acquisition of the outstanding 61.7% limited partner units in Northern Tier Energy LP, the parent company of Northern Tier Energy LLC, that it does not already own.

Moody's also changed Northern Tier Energy, LLC's outlook to stable from negative and affirmed its B1 corporate family rating, B1 secured notes rating and SGL-3 speculative grade liquidity rating.

"WNR's acquisition of Northern Tier Energy will improve both its scale and business profile with diversified cash flows from multiple operating regions," Moody's vice president and senior analyst James Wilkins said in a news release.

"However, debt levels will also increase at a time of weaker industry conditions as a result of the acquisition and without improving the capital structure, there still remains a relatively high level of corporate complexity at WNR."

© 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.