Seattle-based coffee retailer Starbucks Corp. announced a $3 billion notes offering that will build its liquidity cushion and pre-fund upcoming maturities during a period of heightened stress and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We are affirming the 'BBB+' issuer credit rating on Starbucks and revising the outlook to negative from stable to reflect our expectation for pressured earnings and cash flow this year and the risk of a sustained period of weaker credit metrics arising from the effects of the pandemic. At the same time, we are assigning our 'BBB+' issue-rating to the proposed notes. The negative outlook reflects the risk of a downgrade if Starbucks experiences extended disruption to its operations that causes credit metric weakness for
