Pilot Travel Centers Buying Out Speedway

Pilot Travel Centers received an investment-grade rating on term loans that will enable it to buy out partner Speedway in the travel center joint venture the companies signed in June 2016.
More
Pilot Travel Centers Buying Out Speedway
  • By NATSO
  • December 10, 2020
 

Pilot Travel Centers received an investment-grade rating on term loans that will enable it to buy out partner Speedway in the travel center joint venture the companies signed in June 2016, OPIS reported. Proceeds of $750 million of debt along with additional funds from a revolver and another term loan will fund the buyout of Speedway's 29 percent stake in the joint venture.   

The venture consisted of 120 truckstops primarily in the Southeast, flying either the Pilot or Flying J flag, with all sites operated by Pilot Flying J, OPIS reports. Forty-one of the locations were contributed by Speedway, with the other 79 sites came from Pilot Flying J.

S&P Global Ratings assigned a "BBB-" rating and a "1" recovery rating to the proposed $1.5 billion in loans. 
 
Moody's Investors Service assigned a Ba1 rating to Pilot Travel Centers LLC's planned $1.5 billion term loan add-on. Contemporaneously, Moody's affirmed the company's ratings including its Ba1 corporate family rating, Ba2-PD probability of default rating and existing Ba1 senior secured bank credit facility rating. The outlook is stable.

Pilot said most of Speedway's c-store network will be moving to 7-Eleven in a separate transaction with Japanese parent Seven & i. Like the 7-Eleven deal, the Pilot transaction is expected to take place in early 2021, with Marathon Petroleum getting substantial proceeds.

Subscribe to Updates

NATSO provides a breadth of information created to strengthen travel plazas’ ability to meet the needs of the travelling public in an age of disruption. This includes knowledge filled blog posts, articles and publications. If you would like to receive a digest of blog post and articles directly in your inbox, please provide your name, email and the frequency of the updates you want to receive the email digest.

Related Articles