New York, November 12, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service assigned Legacy Reserves LP (Legacy) a B2 Corporate Family Rating and a Caa1 rating to its proposed offering of $300 million of senior notes due 2020, which is being co-issued by Legacy Reserves Finance Corporation. Moody's also assigned a SGL-3 Speculative Grade Liquidity rating to Legacy. The proceeds from the proposed notes offering will be used to fund a portion of Legacy's pending acquisition of oil and gas properties in the Permian Basin for $520 million. This is the first time that Moody's has rated Legacy. The rating outlook is stable.
Rating Assignments:
....$300 Million Senior Unsecured Notes due in 2020, Rated Caa1 (LGD 5, 88%)
....Corporate Family Rating of B2
....Probability of Default Rating of B2
....Speculative Grade Liquidity rating of SGL-3
RATINGS RATIONALE
"Legacy benefits from a lower operational risk than many of its E&P peers, with low exploration and development risk and a fairly predictable production profile," commented Gretchen French, Moody's Vice President. "However, the company's production concentration in the Permian Basin and a financial leverage profile that is in line with its B2 rated upstream MLP peers constrain its Corporate Family Rating at B2."
Legacy's B2 Corporate Family Rating reflects its long-lived, shallow decline, predominately proved developed reserve base. In addition, the company has considerable exposure to oil production, which, along with reasonable priced acquisitions, have supported strong returns. The B2 rating is restrained by Legacy's small and concentrated production base in the Permian Basin and relatively high leverage on proved developed reserves compared to B1 rated upstream MLP peers. The B2 rating also reflects the risks inherent in its acquisitive, high payout MLP corporate finance model, but recognizes management's meaningful use of equity financing for acquisitions, active hedging program and consideration of development capital requirements in calculating its distributable cash flow.
Legacy's SGL-3 Speculative Grade Liquidity rating reflects adequate liquidity through 2013, reflecting its acquisition-driven growth strategy, high level of distributions, and reliance on accessing the capital markets in order to finance acquisitions. Supporting Legacy's liquidity profile is its high degree of flexibility in its capital spending, with no long-term drilling rig or work-over rig contracts, shallow decline property base, and high percentage of acreage held by production. In addition, a degree of near-term cash flow stability is provided by Legacy's use of hedges. Alternative liquidity is limited, given that substantially all of Legacy's oil and gas assets are pledged as security under its revolver.
The Caa1 ratings on Legacy's proposed $300 million of senior notes due 2020 reflect both the overall probability of default of Legacy, to which Moody's assigns a PDR of B2, and a loss given default of LGD 5 (88%). The senior notes are guaranteed by essentially all material domestic subsidiaries on a senior unsecured basis and, therefore, are subordinated to the senior secured credit facility's potential priority claim to the company's assets. The size of the potential senior secured claims relative to the unsecured notes outstanding results in the senior notes being notched two ratings below the B2 CFR under Moody's Loss Given Default Methodology.
The outlook is stable based on our expectation that Legacy continues to finance acquisitions with a meaningful equity component. Moody's could upgrade the ratings if the company is able to maintain production of at least 20,000 boe/d while at the same time reducing financial leverage (debt/proved developed reserves of less than $6.50/boe). Moody's could downgrade the ratings if leverage increased (debt/proved developed reserves above $11.00/boe), if distribution coverage weakened below 1.0x for a sustained period, or if the company's operational risk profile materially deteriorated.
The principal methodology used in rating Legacy was the Global Independent Exploration and Production Industry Methodology published in December 2011. Other methodologies used include Loss Given Default for Speculative-Grade Non-Financial Companies in the U.S., Canada and EMEA published in June 2009. Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com for a copy of these methodologies.
Legacy Reserves LP is headquartered in Midland, Texas.
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Gretchen French VP - Senior Credit Officer Corporate Finance Group Moody'sInvestors Service, Inc.250 Greenwich StreetNew York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376 SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653Steven Wood MD - Corporate Finance Corporate Finance Group JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376 SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service, Inc.250 Greenwich StreetNew York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376 SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653(C) 2012 Moody's Investors Service, Inc. and/or its licensors and affiliates (collectively, "MOODY'S"). All rights reserved.
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