Genworth Floats $300 Million Debt Offer

By Trevor Thomas

December 04, 2009 at 07:00 PM

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Genworth Financial Inc. says that it has priced a new public offering of 7-year senior notes at $300 million.

The offering will pay an interest rate of 8.625% per year, says Genworth, Richmond, Va.

The company says it plans to use proceeds from the sale for general corporate purposes.

Commenting on the offering, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it has assigned its BBB senior debt rating to the notes. At the same time, S&P affirmed its "A" financial strength rating on Genworth's life insurance operations and its "BBB" long-term counterparty credit rating on Genworth itself.

S&P says its outlook on Genworth is negative and on Genworth's life operations is stable.

The company's U.S. mortgage insurance operations rating remain unaffected by the offering and remain on credit watch negative, S&P says.

The debt issuance is the latest in a line of capital-raising schemes by Genworth, which have brought in about $1.6 billion in fresh capital to the holding company during the past 6 months, S&P observes.

"We view this sizable capital infusion favorably, which improves our view of Genworth's liquidity profile and demonstrated access to several sources of external funding," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Jeff Watson.

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