LONG-TERM DEBT AND OTHER BORROWING ARRANGEMENTS

6 Months Ended

Jun. 24, 2012

Long-Term Debt, Other Disclosures [Abstract]

Long-term Debt [Text Block]

10. LONG-TERM DEBT AND OTHER BORROWING ARRANGEMENTS

     Long-term debt and other borrowing arrangements consisted of the following components:

	Maturity	June 24, 2012			December 25, 2011
		(In thousands)
Senior notes, at 77/8%, net of unaccreted discount	2018	$	497,073		$	496,846
U.S. Credit Facility Term B-1note payable at4.75%	2014		275,443			275,443
U.S. Credit Facility Term B-2note payable at9.00%	2014		291,396			299,145
U.S. Credit Facility with one revolving note payable on which the
Company had funds borrowed at4.22% and6.25%	2014		161,500			347,300
Mexico Credit Facility with notes payable at TIIE Rate plus2.25% or
Equilibrium Interbank Interest Rate plus4.5%	2014		—			—
JBS USA Subordinated Loan Agreement with one term note payable at
9.845%	2015		—			50,000
Other	Various		4,824			4,878
Long-term debt			1,230,236			1,473,612
Less: Current maturities of long-term debt			(15,617	)		(15,611	)
Long-term debt, less current maturities		$	1,214,619		$	1,458,001

Senior and Subordinated Notes

     At June 24, 2012, the Company had an aggregate principal balance of $500.0million of 7⁷/₈% Senior Notes due 2018 (the “2018 Notes”) outstanding that are registered under the Securities Act of 1933. The 2018 Notes are unsecured obligations of the Company and are guaranteed by one of the Company’s subsidiaries. Interest is payable on December 15 and June 15 of each year, commencing on June 15, 2011. Additionally, the Company had an aggregate principal balance of $3.9 million of 7 ⁵/₈% senior unsecured notes, 8 ³/₈% senior subordinated unsecured notes and 9 ¹/₄% senior unsecured notes outstanding at June24,2012.

     On June23,2011, the Company entered into a Subordinated Loan Agreement with JBS USA (the “Subordinated Loan Agreement”), which provided an aggregate commitment of $100.0million. On June23,2011, JBS USA made a term loan to the Company in the principal amount of $50.0million. Pursuant to the terms of the Subordinated Loan Agreement, the Company has also agreed to reimburse JBS USA up to $56.5million for potential draws upon letters of credit issued on JBS USA's account that support certain obligations of the Company or its subsidiaries. On December16,2011, the Company and JBS USA executed an amendment to the Subordinated Loan Agreement that, among other things, provided that if the Company consummated a stock rights offering (the "Rights Offering") that allowed stockholders of record as of January17,2012to purchase an aggregate44,444,444shares of the Company's common stock on or before March24,2012, the loan commitment under the Subordinated Loan Agreement would be terminated. The Company consummated the Rights Offering on February29,2012. Further, under the U.S. Credit Facility (as defined below), following the consummation of the Rights Offering, (i) the Company, at its option, was permitted to prepay the outstanding $50.0million term loan under the Subordinated Loan Agreement and (ii) the existing commitment of JBS USA to make an additional $50.0million term loan to the Company under the Subordinated Loan Agreement would be terminated. On March7,2012, the Company repaid the outstanding $50.0million term loan under the Subordinated Loan Agreement, plus accrued interest, with proceeds received from the Rights Offering and the remaining commitment to make loans under the Subordinated Loan Agreement was terminated.

     JBS USA agreed to arrange for letters of credit to be issued on its account in the amount of $56.5million to an insurance company serving the Company in order to allow that insurance company to return cash it held as collateral against potential workers compensation, auto and general liability claims. In return for providing this letter of credit, the Company reimburses JBS USA for the letter of credit costs the Company would otherwise incur under its U.S. Credit Facility. In the thirteen weeks ended June24,2012, the Company reimbursed JBS USA $1.4million for letter of credit costs incurred from November2011through May2012. As of June24,2012, the Company has accrued an obligation of $0.2million to reimburse JBS USA for letter of credit costs incurred on its behalf.

U.S. Credit Facility

     Pilgrim’s and certain of its subsidiaries have entered into a credit agreement (the "U.S. Credit Facility") with CoBank ACB, as administrative agent and collateral agent, and other lenders party thereto, which currently provides a $700.0million revolving credit facility and a Term B facility. The U.S. Credit Facility also includes an accordion feature that allows us, at any time, to increase the aggregate revolving loan commitment by up to an additional $100.0million and to increase the aggregate Term B loans commitment by up to an additional $400.0million, in each case subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including obtaining the lenders' agreement to participate in the increase and an aggregate cap on all commitments under the U.S. Credit Facility of $1.85billion. On April22,2011, we increased the amount of the sub-limit for swingline loans under the U.S. Credit Facility to $100.0million. The revolving loan commitment and the Term B loans will mature on December28,2014.

     On December28,2009, the Company paid loan costs totaling $50.0million related to the U.S. Credit Facility that it recognized as an asset on its balance sheet. The Company amortizes these capitalized costs to interest expense over the life of the U.S. Credit Facility.

     Subsequent to the end of each fiscal year, a portion of our cash flow must be used to repay outstanding principal amounts under the Term B loans. In April2011, the Company paid approximately $46.3million of its excess cash flow toward the outstanding principal under the Term B loans. After giving effect to this prepayment and other prepayments of the Term B loans, the Term B loans must be repaid in16quarterly installments of approximately $3.9million beginning on April15,2011, with the final installment due on December28,2014. The Company did not have excess cash flow from2011to be applied toward the outstanding principal under the Term B loans. The U.S. Credit Facility also requires us to use the proceeds we receive from certain asset sales and specified debt or equity issuances and upon the occurrence of other events to repay outstanding borrowings under the U.S. Credit Facility. The cash proceeds received by the Company from the Rights Offering were not subject to this requirement. On June24,2012, a principal amount of $566.8million under the Term B loans commitment was outstanding.

     Actual borrowings by the Company under the revolving credit commitment component of the U.S. Credit Facility are subject to a borrowing base, which is a formula based on certain eligible inventory, eligible receivables and restricted cash under the control of CoBank ACB. As of June24,2012, the applicable borrowing base was $676.9million, the amount available for borrowing under the revolving loan commitment was $476.2million and outstanding borrowings and letters of credit under the revolving loan commitment were $161.5million and $39.2million, respectively.

     The U.S. Credit Facility contains financial covenants and various other covenants that may adversely affect our ability to, among other things, incur additional indebtedness, incur liens, pay dividends or make certain restricted payments, consummate certain assets sales, enter into certain transactions with JBS USA and our other affiliates, merge, consolidate and/or sell or dispose of all or substantially all of our assets. On June23,2011and December16,2011, the Company entered into amendments to the U.S. Credit Facility, which, among other things, (i) temporarily suspended the requirement for the Company to comply with the fixed charge coverage ratio and senior secured leverage ratio financial covenants until the quarter ended December30,2012, (ii) modified the fixed charge coverage ratio financial covenant so that when the requirement to comply with this covenant resumes in the quarter ended December30,2012, the Company can calculate the fixed charge coverage ratio based upon a specified number of fiscal quarters selected by the Company, (iii) reduced the minimum allowable consolidated tangible net worth to the sum of $450million plus50% of the cumulative net income (excluding any losses) of the Company from December16,2011through such date of calculation and (iv) increased the maximum allowable senior secured leverage ratio, determined for any period of four consecutive fiscal quarters ending on the last day of each fiscal quarter, to be no greater than4.00:1.00for periods calculated from September24,2012and thereafter. The Company is currently in compliance with the modified consolidated tangible net worth covenant. The Company also expects to be in compliance with the modified fixed charge coverage ratio and senior secured leverage ratio financial covenants when the requirement to comply with this covenant resumes in the quarter ended December30,2012.

  All obligations under the U.S. Credit Facility are unconditionally guaranteed by certain of the Company's subsidiaries and are secured by a first priority lien on (i) the accounts receivable and inventories of the Company and its non-Mexico subsidiaries, (ii)65% of the equity interests in the Company's direct foreign subsidiaries and100% of the equity interests in the Company's other subsidiaries and (iii) substantially all of the personal property and intangibles of the borrowers and guarantors under the U.S. Credit Facility and (iv) substantially all of the real estate and fixed assets of the Company and the guarantor subsidiaries under the U.S. Credit Facility.

Mexico Credit Facility

     On October19,2011, Avícola Pilgrim's Pride de México, S.A. de C.V. , Pilgrim's Pride S. de R.L. de C.V. and certain Mexican subsidiaries entered into an amended and restated credit agreement (the “Mexico Credit Facility”) with ING Bank (México), S.A. Institución de Banca Múltiple, ING Grupo Financiero, as lender and ING Capital LLC, as administrative agent. The Mexico Credit Facility has a final maturity date of September25,2014. The Mexico Credit Facility is secured by substantially all of the assets of the Company's Mexico subsidiaries. As of June24,2012, the U.S. dollar-equivalent of the loan commitment under the Mexico Credit Facility was $40.2million. There were no outstanding borrowings under the Mexico Credit Facility at June24,2012.