CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE: CBL), on Monday announced that the company was assigned a Baa3 issuer rating from Moody’s Investors Service.
Moody’s indicated in their announcement that the Baa3 issuer rating reflects the strong financial performance and stable cash flows afforded by CBL’s market-dominant mall portfolio with consistently high occupancy rates. In addition, Moody’s noted CBL’s healthy credit profile with a high EBITDA margin and solid fixed charge coverage ratio. Further, according to Moody’s, CBL has demonstrated its commitment to growing the unencumbered net operating income (“NOI”) and believes that continuing this strategy would lead to further enhancement of CBL’s credit profile.
“We are pleased that the strength and flexibility of our balance sheet as well as the value of our market-dominant strategy was recognized by Moody’s with the assignment of an investment grade rating; an important milestone for CBL,” said Farzana Mitchell, CBL executive vice president and chief financial officer. “We believe a balanced financing structure, including full access to both the secured and unsecured credit markets, will allow CBL to fuel our ongoing growth using the most attractive sources of capital and further reducing our cost of funds. We look forward to building on this significant accomplishment.”
More information regarding CBL’s rating assignment can be found in the Moody’s Investors Service press release on its website at www.moodys.com.