Goodyear’s Cooper acquisition notes set to bear interest of 5%

Following the news that it is raising money to fund the cash part of its takeover of Cooper Tire with a private offering, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company announced that it has priced its private offering to eligible purchasers of $850 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2029 and $600 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2031.

The 2029 notes will be offered to eligible purchasers at a price of 100 per cent of their principal amount and will bear interest at a rate of 5 per cent per annum. The 2031 notes will be offered to eligible purchasers at a price of 100 per cent of their principal amount and will bear interest at a rate of 5.25 per cent per annum. Goodyear expects the offering to close on 18 May 2021.

Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings assigned a rating of ‘BB-‘/’RR4’ to The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s (GT), describing the Rating Outlook is “Negative”. Defined as “average” Rating Recovery 4 comes under “outstanding” (RR1), “superior” (RR2) and “good” (RR3) and above “below-average” (RR5) and “poor” (RR6).