New York, May 07, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) assigned a B1 rating to
Delek US Holdings, Inc.'s (Delek) proposed $200
million incremental term loan due 2025. The net proceeds from the
term loan issuance will be used for general corporate purposes.
Delek's existing ratings, including the Ba3 Corporate Family
Rating (CFR) and B1 rating on the existing senior secured term loan B,
as well as the stable outlook are unchanged.
"The incremental term loan will supplement Delek's liquidity
and support its rating in this period of weak and volatile refining margins,"
stated James Wilkins, Moody's Vice President - Senior
Analyst.
Assignments:
..Issuer: Delek US Holdings, Inc.
....Senior Secured Term Loan, Assigned
B1 (LGD4)
RATINGS RATIONALE
The proposed incremental secured term loan, which is pari passu
with the existing term loans, is rated B1. This is one notch
below the Ba3 CFR, reflecting the priority claim of the $1
billion revolving credit facility, which shares the same collateral
as the term loans, but has a first lien on working capital and a
second lien on fixed assets, whereas the term loans have a first
lien priority claim on fixed assets and a second lien on working capital.
Moody's views the B1 rating assigned as more appropriate than the
Ba3 rating indicated by Moody's Loss Given Default Methodology given the
inherent volatility of the company's trade payables and lack of material
other debt outstanding that is subordinated to the term loan.
The rapid and widening spread of the coronavirus outbreak, deteriorating
global economic outlook, falling oil and refined products prices,
and asset price declines are creating a severe and extensive credit shock
across many sectors, regions and markets. The combined credit
effects of these developments are unprecedented. The refining and
marketing sector has been one of the sectors significantly affected by
the shock given its sensitivity to demand as well as oil and refined products
prices. We regard the coronavirus outbreak as a social risk under
our ESG framework, given the substantial implications for public
health and safety.
Delek's Ba3 CFR reflects its moderate leverage and a large cash
balance which is indicative of its conservative financial policies and
very good liquidity that can support it through periods of volatile refining
industry profit margins and potentially high RINs expenses. Its
crack spreads have come under severe pressure in 2020 as a result of the
deteriorating economic situation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic
that has generally decreased refined products demand in the US.
Additionally, the drop in crude oil prices has raised its working
capital requirements, but not sufficiently to impair its very good
liquidity.
Delek's refining and marketing operations include four refineries of modest
scale that are geographically focused and have a combined crude oil throughput
capacity of 302 thousand barrels per day (mbpd) (all four refineries can
be operated at less than 75 mbpd allowing them to apply for waivers of
RINs requirements). The refineries are positioned in Texas,
Louisiana and Arkansas where they can benefit from both growing Permian
crude oil production and other locally-sourced crudes that are
purchased at a discount to WTI Cushing prices. The company also
benefits from more stable earnings generated by retail gas station and
midstream operations, through its ownership interests in Delek Logistics
Partners, LP (B1 stable). Delek's debt to EBITDA was 3.8x
as of December 31, 2019.
Delek's SGL-1 Speculative Grade Liquidity rating reflects very
good liquidity supported by a large cash balance, $0.66
billion borrowing capacity under its $1 billion ABL revolving credit
facility due 2023 and positive free cash flow generation. The incremental
term loan will add almost $200 million to its liquidity.
The company has kept elevated cash balances ($955 million as of
December 31, 2019) and has stated it expects it will continue to
do so. The company had roughly $30 million drawn on its
ABL revolving credit facility and outstanding letters of credit totaling
$310 million as of year-end 2019, which left $660
million of borrowing capacity to fund potential growth capital expenditures
and working capital needs. (It had unused borrowing capacity totaling
$0.92 billion under the two revolving credit facilities
at Delek and Delek Logistics Partners.) The Delek revolver has
a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio of 1.0x, which is only
tested if excess availability is less than the greater of 10% of
the revolver borrowing base (capped at $1 billion) and $90
million. Moody's does not expect the covenant to be tested
through mid-2021. The company's liquidity benefits from
supply and off-take agreements covering three refineries with J.
Aron that mature on December 30, 2022. Should Delek or J.
Aron elect to terminate the agreement, Delek would have to invest
a substantial amount in working capital. (The obligation under
the supply and off-take agreements totaled $477 million
as of December 31, 2019.)
The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectation that Delek will
maintain at least adequate liquidity through 2021, even as refining
margins are under pressure.
FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATING
The ratings could be downgraded if profitability of refining operations
declines or retained cash flow to debt remains below 15%.
The ratings could be upgraded if retained cash flow to debt is sustainable
above 25%, refining margins improve such that all refineries
produce free cash flow in trough market conditions and the company increases
scale by adding refineries to its portfolio or expanding existing operations
such that it benefits from larger scale operations (refineries with throughput
capacity greater than 100 mbpd).
The principal methodology used in this rating was Refining and Marketing
Industry published in November 2016 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1040610.
Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of this methodology.
Delek US Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: DK), headquartered
in Brentwood, Tennessee, is an independent refining and wholesale
marketing company with 302 mbpd of total crude oil throughput capacity
at four refineries with an average Nelson Complexity of 9.5,
midstream assets and retail operations.
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.
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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
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James Wilkins
Vice President - Senior Analyst
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
Steven Wood
MD - Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
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