Watchmaker Breitling Raises $336 Million Debt to Pay Dividends
- CVC-backed firm is selling leveraged loan to fund payout
- Moody’s says “aggressive financial policy” is credit negative
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Luxury watchmaker Breitling AG is taking advantage of Europe’s hot credit market to raise debt for shareholder payouts for the second time in two years.
The CVC-backed company is selling a leveraged loan of about 950 million Swiss francs ($1 billion), from which nearly a third will go toward paying out dividends to shareholders, according to an analysis by Moody’s Investors Service. That’s nearly double the amount it paid out in November 2019, Moody’s data show.