S&P Places Symantec (SYMC) Ratings on Review for Downgrade

S&P Global Ratings said it placed its 'BBB-' corporate credit rating on Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), and the issue ratings on Symantec's debt, on CreditWatch with negative implications.

"The CreditWatch placement follows Symantec's announcement that it plans to issue $4 billion of incremental debt to finance the acquisition of Web security provider Blue Coat," said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst James Thomas.

While the contribution of Blue Coat provides additional scale and product line diversity, we estimate that the incremental debt will raise leverage over our previously published downside trigger 2x at close, and that leverage may remain elevated for a sustained period thereafter.

We will monitor developments related to the proposed transaction, including full details of the new debt, repayment plans, financial policy, and required approvals, and plan to resolve the CreditWatch no later than the close of the acquisition. We do not believe that we would downgrade the firm by more than one notch in the event of a ratings action.

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