S&P: Crown Castle stable

Standard & Poor's said it affirmed its B+ corporate credit and other ratings on Crown Castle International Corp. and revised the outlook to stable from positive.

"The outlook revision reflects the heightened leverage that we expect from the company's pending acquisition of NextG for $1 billion," said S&P credit analyst Catherine Cosentino in a news release.

Pro forma for the transaction, leverage will be about 7x initially, and will not improve to about 6x by the end of 2012, which S&P incorporated in the previous positive outlook, the agency said.

While the acquisition improves the company's ability to serve wireless customers in denser markets where traditional towers are not feasible, S&P said, it does not materially change the company's overall business risk assessment, which S&P already views as "strong."

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