The Weather Company (Weather Channel) to Pay $600 Mln Dividend to Sponsors, Including Bain and Blackstone

From peHub:

Blackstone and Bain Capital have hopped onto the dividend train.

The Weather Company plans to pay a $600 million dividend to its shareholders. The Atlanta-based company is launching a $600 million dividend recap loan today, according to Thomson Reuters Loan Pricing Corp. Standard & Poor’s Leverage Commentary & Data says proceeds will be used to fund a dividend that will go to the company’s sponsors.

The new loan spurred Moody’s Investors Service to downgrade Weather’s corporate family rating to ‘B1′ from ‘Ba3.’ The ratings agency said the downgrade reflects the company’s sharp increase in leverage to 7.5x from 5.5x at March 31 due to the transaction.

The distribution is the first time The Weather Company is paying out a dividend, a source says. In 2008, NBC Universal along with Blackstone and Bain acquired the Weather Channel for $3.5 billion. Moody’s said at the time that the buyers provided $1.95 billion of equity. The $600 million dividend will go to all of The Weather Company’s shareholders, but it’s not clear how much Bain and Blackstone will receive....MORE