Moody's Rates Nielson Senior Notes - Analyst Blog

Nielsen Holdings N.V. NLSN recently announced that its subsidiaries — Nielsen Finance LLC and Nielsen Finance Co. — have announced the pricing of senior unsecured notes aggregating $750 million due in 2022 in a private offering.

Nielsen stated that the net proceeds would be used for repaying outstanding debt under its senior secured credit facilities and other related fees and expenses.

Moody's Investor Services assigned a “B1” rating to the senior notes. Additionally, the rating agency affirmed the “Ba3” corporate family rating CFR and “Baa3-PD” Probability of Default Rating (PDR) of Nielsen. All the ratings carry a positive outlook.

Last month, Nielsen announced a secondary public offering of 30 million shares. The offering did not have a significant impact on Nielsen's overall financial position as the proceeds went to the selling stockholders.

Nielsen Holdings N.V. is an information and measurement company providing clients with media and marketing information and analytics about what consumers watch (consumer interaction with television, online and mobile) and buy on a global and local basis. In the recently concluded quarter, Nielsen's net debt position was $6.08 billion and net debt leverage ratio was 3.76x.

The company's revenues increased 11.8% year over year to $1,611 million or 13.1% on a constant currency basis. However, earnings of 68 cents were below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 69 cents due to higher-than-expected expenses.

Currently, Nielsen has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Other stocks that offer a lucrative investment option currently include IHS Inc. IHS, Orbitz Worldwide OWW and Netflix, Inc. NFLX. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).