Carnival Corp. & PLC has priced $3.5 billion of six-year unsecured bonds at the midpoint of talk, sources said. The deal was upsized by $1 billion and marketed via a J.P. Morgan-led bookrunner group.

Proceeds will be used to make scheduled principal payments on debt during 2021 and for general corporate purposes.

Moody's today placed Carnival's ratings on review for downgrade, including its B1 corporate family rating, Ba2 first-lien senior secured rating, B1 second-lien secured rating and the unsecured debt rating.

"The review for downgrade will focus on the timeline for Carnival to return to service, the potential to ramp up operations in a meaningful way in 2021, and the resulting impact to its liquidity," Moody's said.

S&P Global Ratings weighed in with a one-notch upgrade for the company’s unsecured debt, and revised the recovery rating to 2, from 3. Ratings expects Carnival's credit measures will remain unsustainable in 2021 due to a protracted return to service, but believes its "sources of liquidity in 2021 (excluding the proceeds from the proposed notes issuance), which include $9.5 billion of unrestricted cash on hand as of Nov. 30, 2020, and $2.1 billion in committed ship financing, will be sufficient to cover its uses."

Carnival is a cruise line operator. The company has a dual-listed structure in New York and London and is part of both the S&P 500 and the FTSE 250. Terms: