Moody's trims Ankura first-lien rating

Moody's Investors Service said it trimmed the first-lien senior secured credit facilities ratings at Ankura Consulting Group LLC to B2 from B1. The agency affirmed the consulting group’s Caa2 instrument rating on the $175 million second-lien senior secured term loan and changed the outlook to stable from positive.

“These ratings actions follow the issuance of $75 million in incremental first-lien term loan, which brings leverage up to 5.8x based on Moody's adjusted EBITDA for the last 12-month period ended September 2021, from 5.3x,” the agency said in a press release.

“The change in the outlook to stable is driven by the resulting higher leverage and the expectation that the company will now take longer to achieve metrics required for an upgrade. The stable outlook incorporates the view that Ankura will continue to attain earnings growth organically and via acquisitions, margins will remain stable and leverage will decline in the absence of additional re-leveraging transactions,” Moody’s said.

Concurrently, the agency assigned a B3 corporate family rating and a B3-PD probability of default rating to Ankura Holdings, LP. The CFR and PDR are re-assigned to the parent entity where the financial statements are issued, and will be withdrawn from Ankura Consulting.

The incremental proceeds will be used for future M&A activity.

© 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.