Wolverine Worldwide has amended and extended its credit agreement with JP Morgan Chase, refinancing a $200 million term loan and taking its existing revolving credit up from $800 million to $1 billion. The maturity of both credit facilities has been stretched to end on Oct. 21, 2026. There was an outstanding amount of about $310 million due on the revolver at the time of the amendment.
Standard & Poor’s lowered its rating on Wolverine’s existing $550 million worth of unsecured senior notes because of the $200 million upsizing of the revolver, to which it has assigned a BBB issue-level rating. Praising the better-than –expected results published by the company for the first half of 2021 and attributing them to continued strong consumer demand for footwear, the rating agency said it expects that the group will keep its adjusted debt/Ebitda leverage at between three and four times. It is predicting solid margins going forward, with an improved channel mix and reduced promotions more than offsetting rising freight and input costs.
