NEW YORK - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services placed its 'B+' corporate credit and senior secured debt ratings on security officer services provider SpectaGuard Acquisition LLC (conducting business under the name Allied Security Inc.) on CreditWatch with negative implications. The CreditWatch placement follows the May 24, 2004, announcement by Allied Security stating that it had signed an agreement to acquire Atlanta, Ga.-based Barton Protective Services. Negative implications means that the ratings could be lowered or affirmed following Standard & Poor's review.
King of Prussia, Pa.-based Allied Security had about $178.4 million of total debt outstanding at Dec. 31, 2003.
"Although terms of the transaction were not publicly disclosed, we believe that the acquisition will likely be debt financed," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst David Kang. "We expect that the company would remain highly leveraged and that any potential incremental debt related to the purchase could result in a weaker financial profile for the company."
Standard & Poor's will continue to monitor developments and will meet with management to discuss the company's business strategy, future capital structure, and financial policy before resolving the CreditWatch listing.
Allied Security is the third-largest participant in the U.S. contract security officer services industry. Complete ratings information is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis system, at www.ratingsdirect.com. All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Credit Ratings in the left navigation bar, select Find Ratings, then Credit Ratings Search.
