Monsanto Company -- Moody's downgrades Monsanto to A3, P-2 commercial paper rating

New York, June 25, 2014 -- Moody's Investors Service downgraded Monsanto Company's (Monsanto's) long-term ratings to A3 from A1 and commercial paper rating to P-2 from P-1, following its announced change in financial policy and the initiation of a $10 billion share repurchase program. Monsanto plans to use a portion of its cash balance and increase leverage to fund a $6 billion accelerated share repurchase in the near term. Moody's expects that in the absence of a large acquisition Monsanto will utilize its share repurchase program to get to the new leverage target by the end of fiscal 2015. This new leverage target of 1.5x Net Debt/EBITDA will significantly weaken the company's credit metrics. The outlook is stable.

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