Bulletin: Aretec Group Inc.'s Acquisition Of Voya Financial Advisors Modestly Increases Leverage

TORONTO (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 8, 2021--S&P Global Ratings today said Aretec Group Inc.'s (B-/Stable/--) agreement to acquire certain assets related to the independent financial planning channel of Voya Financial Advisors from Voya Financial Inc. (Voya), will modestly increase leverage but does not affect its creditworthiness. As part of the agreement, approximately 900 advisors serving 385,000 retail customers with roughly $40 billion in assets will transition to Aretec. While the price was not disclosed by Aretec, Voya announced that it expects over $300 million in deployable proceeds after the transaction closes. Given Aretec's private-equity ownership, aggressive financial management, and favorable debt market, we believe the company will finance the acquisition via debt. As a result, we expect pro forma leverage

...February 8, 2021 TORONTO (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 8, 2021--S&P Global Ratings today said Aretec Group Inc.'s (B-/Stable/--) agreement to acquire certain assets related to the independent financial planning channel of Voya Financial Advisors from Voya Financial Inc. (Voya), will modestly increase leverage but does not affect its creditworthiness. As part of the agreement, approximately 900 advisors serving 385,000 retail customers with roughly $40 billion in assets will transition to Aretec. While the price was not disclosed by Aretec, Voya announced that it expects over $300 million in deployable proceeds after the transaction closes. Given Aretec's private-equity ownership, aggressive financial management, and favorable debt market, we believe the company will finance the acquisition via debt. As a result, we expect pro forma leverage (as measured by debt to covenant EBITDA) to be 5.75x-6.25x in 2020, compared with our previous expectation of 5.5x¡6.0x, whereas pro forma debt service...

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