Moody's moves Wolverine view to negative

Moody's Investors Service said it changed Wolverine World Wide, Inc.'s outlook to negative from stable. Concurrently, Moody's affirmed the company's Ba1 corporate family rating, Ba1-PD probability of default rating and Ba2 senior unsecured notes rating. The company's speculative grade liquidity rating was changed to SGL-2 from SGL-1.

“The outlook change to negative reflects the risk that Wolverine may not substantially reduce leverage from its current level of 4.5x Moody's-adjusted debt/EBITDA over the next 12 months. In addition, the change in outlook reflects governance factors, including the company's decisions to finance the Sweaty Betty acquisition with debt and to continue share repurchases rather than reduce debt levels,” the agency said in a press release.

The SGL downgrade 1 reflects expectations for negative free cash flow over the next 12 months, partly softened by more than $600 million in revolver availability and an ample covenant cushion.

© 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.