New York, December 08, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") today
assigned a Ba1 rating to Energizer Holdings, Inc.'s ("Energizer")
new $1.2 billion secured term loan B offering due 2027.
Moody's also assigned a Ba1 rating to the extended $400 million
revolver expiring in 2025 that will replace the 2023 revolver.
Moody's expects to withdraw the Ba1 ratings on the existing revolver
expiring in 2023 and existing term loans upon completion of the refinancing.
All other ratings for Energizer including the B1 Corporate Family Rating
and the B1-PD Probability of Default Rating remain unchanged.
The company's SGL-1 Speculative Grade Liquidity Rating and stable
outlook are unaffected. Proceeds from the new offering will be
used to refinance the $277 million remaining on the secured term
loan A, the $194 million remaining on the secured term loan
B, and its $600 million unsecured notes due in 2027.
Proceeds will also be used to pay fees and expenses related to the proposed
debt offering. The rating outlook is stable.
The offering is credit positive because it extends the company's
maturity profile and reduces cash interest expense. The next significant
maturity is a $730 million unsecured note due July 2026.
The following ratings/assessments are affected by today's action:
New Assignments:
..Issuer: Energizer Holdings, Inc.
....Senior Secured Bank Credit Facility,
Assigned Ba1 (LGD2)
RATINGS RATIONALE
Energizer's B1 CFR reflects its concentration in the declining battery
category that is facing a slow secular decline as consumer products are
increasingly evolving toward rechargeable technologies. The ratings
also reflect high event risk as Energizer has chosen to expand outside
of the battery business -- through debt financed acquisitions
-- into totally unrelated businesses. The company's
high financial leverage, with debt to EBITDA at about 6.0x
for the fiscal year ended 9/30/2020, following the acquisition of
the Spectrum assets in January 2019, also limits financial flexibility
to invest and sustain the dividend. The company's 6.0x
financial leverage is pro-forma for its recent repayment of the
$750 million notes due 2026. Leverage reduction has underperformed
Moody's projections at the time of the Spectrum acquisition reflecting
lower than expected earnings and this weakly positions the company within
the rating category. Moody's expects debt to EBITDA to improve
by nearly a turn to about 5.3x over the next 12 to 18 months through
a combination of earnings growth, boosted by cost and operational
synergies, and debt repayment. However, leverage could
well increase again should Energizer pursue additional debt-financed
acquisitions. Energizer's ratings are supported by its leading
market position in the single use and specialized battery market,
and portfolio of well-known brands in the battery and consumer
car maintenance segments, and solid operating cash flow.
Energizer's organic revenue growth was 2.5% for the fiscal
year ended September 30, 2020 driven by distribution gains and increased
demand due to the impact of the coronavirus. Moody's expects demand
for the company's battery business (77% of sales) and auto business
(19%) to remain favorable over the next 12 months. The elevated
demand for batteries reflects a high number of consumers working from
home due to the coronavirus pandemic. Moody's expects Energizer's
organic revenue growth to be around 0%-3% over the
next year supported by volume gains and a slight pick-up in developed
markets growth. That said, the company's profitability
was negatively impacted by higher coronavirus related costs related to
its workforce and higher sales of lower margin products in certain geographies.
This reduced EBITDA margin by about 50 basis points to 21.4%
in fiscal year 2020. Moody's expects profitability to improve
over the next 12 -18 months reflecting continued cost reduction
initiatives and productivity improvements. While Energizer continues
to generate good free cash flow of about $150-$200
million per annum, the company's continued share buy backs
at a time when its profitability has been weaker than expected is aggressive.
Environmental, Social and Governance considerations:
In terms of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations,
the most important factor for Energizer's ratings are governance considerations
related to its financial policies and environmental risk. Moody's
views Energizer's financial policies as aggressive given its debt financed
acquisition of Spectrum into totally unrelated businesses. Energizer
faces environmental risk from the disposal and recycling of batteries.
The coronavirus outbreak, the government measures put in place to
contain it, and the weak global economic outlook continue to disrupt
economies and credit markets across sectors and regions. Moody's
analysis has considered the effect on the performance of consumer sectors
from the current weak U.S. economic activity and a gradual
recovery for the coming months. Although an economic recovery is
underway, it is tenuous and its continuation will be closely tied
to containment of the virus. As a result, the degree of uncertainty
around our forecasts is unusually high. Moody's regards the coronavirus
outbreak as a social risk under our ESG framework, given the substantial
implications for public health and safety.
FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS
The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectation that Energizer's high
financial leverage will improve over the next 12 to 18 months through
EBITDA growth and debt repayment. Moody's also assumes that Energizer's
very good liquidity will provide flexibility to integrate Spectrum and
to repay debt.
The ratings could be downgraded if Energizer experiences significant operational
disruption. Further, the ratings could be downgraded if the
company's financial policies become increasingly aggressive, including
additional debt funded acquisitions or shareholder returns. Moody's
could also downgrade the ratings if the company's liquidity deteriorates
or if debt to EBITDA is sustained above 5.5x.
Moody's could upgrade the ratings if Energizer consistently generates
organic revenue growth and maintains a stable to higher margin and improves
credit metrics. Debt/EBITDA would need to be sustained below 4.5x
before Moody's would consider an upgrade.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Consumer Packaged
Goods Methodology published in February 2020 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1202237.
Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of this methodology.
Energizer Holding, Inc. manufactures and markets batteries,
lighting products, car fragrance and appearance, and engine
additives around the world. The product portfolio includes household
batteries, specialty batteries, portable lighting equipment
and various car fragrance dispensing systems. Some key brands include
Energizer, Eveready, Rayovac, STP, and ArmorAll.
The publicly-traded company generates roughly $2.7
billion in annual revenues.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and
sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and
Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's
Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.
For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of
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same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant
to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing
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issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain
regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the
support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action
for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's
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provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional
rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may
be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each
case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior
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support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action,
and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action,
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if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure
to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
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Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social
and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.
The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was
issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed
by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt
am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph
3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies.
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Chedly Louis
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
John E. Puchalla, CFA
Associate Managing Director
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
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JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
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