Moody's Investors Service assigned an A2 rating to The Walt Disney Company's new $4 billion senior unsecured revolving credit facility (RCF) maturing in 2023 and $6 billion 364-day senior unsecured RCF, which will be used to refinance Disney's maturing 364-day RCF and $2.25 billion credit facility scheduled to mature in 2019. Disney's other existing $2.25 billion RCF maturing in 2021 remains in place. Disney's total revolving credit facility commitments have increased from $7 billion to $12.25 billion. The company has also increased its Prime-1 rated commercial paper program to $12.25 billion. The outlook is stable.
According to Moody's, the transaction improves an already strong liquidity profile for Disney. The $12.25 billion of revolving credit facilities will provide a backstop to the company's $12.25 billion commercial paper program. Disney actively accesses the commercial paper market to fund working capital needs, so we believe an increase in commercial paper availability provides the company more capital availability to fund short-term operating and funding needs.
The stable outlook reflects our view that Disney will continue to reinvest in its businesses to sustain its competitive position and cash flows, and manage its credit profile commensurate with the A2 long-term debt rating. The outlook also reflects our assumption that Disney will manage share buybacks, dividends and acquisitions with an eye on reducing debt leverage to about 2.0x or less within 24 months of the closing of the pending acquisition of some of 21st Century Fox's assets.
Moody's would consider an upgrade of Disney's A2 rating if debt-to-EBITDA (including Moody's adjustments) leverage is sustained below 1.5x and free cash flow-to-EBITDA is above 35%. A strong commitment from the company's management and board of directors to these stronger metrics would also be necessary for consideration of a higher rating. A downgrade could occur if management adjusts its financial policy, becoming less conservative and does not remain committed to keeping leverage below 2.0x (including Moody's adjustments), or if the company underperforms such that is unable to reduce leverage.