Toronto, January 26, 2015 -- Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") changed Baytex Energy Corp.'s (Baytex) outlook to stable from positive. Moody's also affirmed Baytex's Ba3 Corporate Family Rating (CFR), Ba3-PD Probability of Default Rating and Ba3 senior unsecured notes rating. The SGL-3 Speculative Grade Liquidity Rating remained unchanged.
"The change in outlook to stable reflects our expectation that Baytex's production will remain flat in 2015 with leverage remaining in line with the Ba3 rating," says Paresh Chari, Moody's Analyst. "We also expect that Baytex will breach a covenant in 2015 and that the banks will give the company relief."
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Baytex production in 2015 will actually be up approximately 16% YOY. By "production will remain flat", they mean flat to Q4.