S&P rates Everest Group loan B

S&P said it assigned a preliminary B long-term issuer credit rating to Everest Bidco SAS, parent of Exclusive Group.

The outlook is stable.

S&P said it assigned a preliminary B issue rating to Everest Bidco's proposed €500 million first-lien term loan. The recovery rating is 3, indicating 65% expected default recovery.

The ratings reflect an expectation that the company will maintain high leverage under the control of its new financial sponsor owner, Permira, the agency said.

The ratings also are constrained by Exclusive Group's relatively limited scale and narrow product portfolio compared with those of larger rated peers, S&P said, and by its dependence on a few vendors.

The ratings are further constrained by the company's structurally low EBITDA margin, which is inherent to the distribution business, but higher than the average for larger competitors, the agency said

Theses weaknesses are mitigated by supportive industry fundamentals, its good track record an expectation of positive free cash flow generation of €30 million to €35 million over the next two years, S&P said.

© 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.