New York, January 29, 2021 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) today placed the ratings of Acadia
Healthcare Company, Inc.'s ("Acadia") ratings on review for
upgrade, including its B2 RUR-Up Corporate Family Rating
(CFR) and B2-PD RUR-Up Probability of Default Rating.
Moody's also placed Acadia's senior secured ratings on review for upgrade
at Ba2 RUR-Up and its senior unsecured ratings on review for upgrade
at B3 RUR-Up. The rating agency also upgraded Acadia's Speculative
Grade Liquidity Rating to SGL-1 from SGL-3. The outlook
was also placed on review.
Today's rating action follows the completion of Acadia's sale
of its U.K. operations to Waterland Private Equity for approximately
GBP1.078 billion in January 2021. Net of transaction
costs and the settlement of foreign currency hedging liabilities,
Acadia generated proceeds of around $1.35 billion.
"This transaction is credit positive because it will facilitate
deleveraging and rid the company of a challenged business,"
commented Moody's Vice President-Senior Credit Officer Jonathan
Kanarek. "These benefits more than offset the significant
loss of scale and geographic diversity as a result of the divestiture,"
he continued.
The change in the Speculative Grade Liquidity Rating to SGL-1 reflects
the company's successful divestiture of a large, yet challenged
U.K. business and Moody's expectation that Acadia
will generate consistently positive free cash flow over the next 12-18
months while maintaining good cash balances and significant access to
its revolving credit facility.
Moody's review process will focus on the composition of Acadia's
new capital structure and any potential changes in financial policy.
It will also focus on the Acadia's ability to generate free cash
flow, which has historically been limited by aggressive growth initiatives
in its U.S. business, and the company's acquisition
strategy.
Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc.
Ratings placed on review for upgrade:
Corporate Family Rating to B2 RUR-Up from B2
Probability of Default Rating to B2-PD RUR-Up from B2-PD
Senior secured ratings to Ba2 (LGD2) RUR-Up from Ba2 (LGD2)
Senior unsecured ratings to B3 (LGD5) RUR-Up from B3 (LGD5)
Ratings upgraded:
Speculative Grade Liquidity Rating to SGL-1 from SGL-3
Outlook change:
The outlook, previously stable, has been placed on review.
RATINGS RATIONALE / FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE
OF THE RATINGS
Excluding the review, the B2 CFR is constrained by Acadia's high
financial leverage as well as its reliance on government reimbursement
from Medicare and Medicaid. There are also risks associated with
the rapid pace of growth through acquisitions, opening of new facilities
and the addition of new beds in existing facilities. Further,
the continuing spread of the coronavirus will temporarily reduce patient
volumes at Acadia's behavioral health facilities. The B2 CFR is
supported by the company's large scale and good business and geographic
diversity within the domestic behavioral health care industry.
It is also supported by attractive industry fundamentals, including
growing demand for services and increasing willingness of payors,
including governments, to pay for behavioral health and addiction
treatment services. The B2 rating is also supported by the company's
strong operating cash flow and good liquidity.
As an operator of inpatient behavioral health hospitals, Acadia
faces high social risk. Any incident, such as a patient fatality
or a patient not receiving appropriate care at one of Acadia's facilities,
can result in increased regulatory burdens, government investigations,
and negative publicity. Acadia also has environmental risk associated
with inclement weather and natural disasters. For example,
Hurricane Dorian weakened patient volumes in some of the company's North
Carolina and Florida facilities in September 2019, while wildfires
in California in October 2019 necessitated the evacuation of three of
the company's facilities and dampened the patient volumes of others.
From a governance perspective, the significant amount of capital
that Acadia has allocated to acquisitions and new bed additions has not
yet demonstrated adequate returns, given that Acadia's LTM EBITDA
as of September 30, 2020 is below where it was in 2016.
Acadia is a provider of behavioral health care services. Acadia
provides psychiatric and chemical dependency services to its patients
in a variety of settings, including inpatient psychiatric hospitals,
residential treatment centers, outpatient clinics and therapeutic
school based programs. Acadia operates behavioral health facilities
spanning across the US, Puerto Rico, England, Wales,
and Scotland. As of September 30, 2020, Acadia generated
LTM pro forma revenue of approximately $2.0 billion.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Business and Consumer
Service Industry published in October 2016 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1037985.
Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of this methodology.
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
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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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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_1243406.
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.
Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's
office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.
The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was
issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the UK and is endorsed
by Moody's Investors Service Limited, One Canada Square,
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Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued
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Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Jonathan Kanarek, CFA
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
Jessica Gladstone, CFA
Associate Managing Director
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Releasing Office:
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JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
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