LINCOLN – In another blow to the ailing Twin River greyhound racing and slot parlor, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded its ratings on $565 million in debt held by the venue’s owner, BLB Management.
The ratings agency downgraded its probability-of-default rating for the Twin River owner; its corporate family rating; and its first-lien revolving-loan term-loan ratings. It also placed the company on negative ratings watch.
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“A negative rating outlook was assigned to reflect the high probability that the company may be forced to seek [Chapter 11] bankruptcy protection in the near term,” Moody’s said in its ratings action, noting that it had been reviewing BLB for possible downgrade since March 10.
The announcement late yesterday follows Twin River’s recent announcement of a forbearance agreement with first-lien holders.
As part of that agreement, however, the venue agreed to suspend interest payments to second-lien holders. And by not making those payments, Twin River has gone into default on its secondary loans.
Twin River operator UTGR Inc. – which, like BLB Management, is a subsidiary of BLB Investors LLC, the joint venture of Kerzner International, Starwood Capital Group and the Waterford Group that acquired Lincoln Park in 2004, then spent about $225 million renovating and expanding the facility – was downgraded and placed on negative watch late Friday by Standard & Poor’s Credit Research, which cited the company’s failure to make a second-lien interest payment that had been due on Sept. 2. (READ MORE)
The new action by Moody’s “was not unexpected, and it won’t change our intentions to continue constructive dialogue with our lenders, our vendors and the state of Rhode Island in the coming months prior to the January 2009 forbearance deadline,” Twin River spokeswoman Patti Doyle, of RDW Group, told Providence Business News in an e-mail interview today.
“Our situation remains precarious at best,” Doyle said.
Moody’s Investors Service, a subsidiary of Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO), is a financial research and rating firm. Additional information is available at www.moodys.com.
Information about Twin River and its owners, BLB Investors LLC, is available at www.TwinRiver.com.
