Moody’s ups Charter, drops Time Warner debt

Moody's Investors Service said it upgraded Charter Communications Inc.'s corporate family rating to Ba2 from Ba3, probability of default rating to Ba2-PD from Ba3-PD and revised the outlook to stable from review for upgrade.

The actions follow the Federal Communications Commission's announcement that it formally approved the acquisition of Time Warner Cable, Inc. and Bright House Networks by Charter.

The agency also lowered Charter Communications Operating, LLC's (CCO) Baa3 senior secured bank credit facility rating to Ba1 and confirmed CCO Holdings, LLC's (CCOH) B1 senior unsecured debt ratings.

Concurrently, Moody's downgraded Time Warner’s senior unsecured long-term debt ratings to Ba1 from Baa2.

Moody's ratings for Time Warner senior unsecured debt anticipate that those notes will be secured at the close of the acquisition. In addition, Time Warner’s commercial paper rating was lowered to Not Prime from Prime-2 and will be withdrawn at the time of closing.

This concludes the review for upgrade of Charter's ratings and review for downgrade for Time Warner’s debt ratings initiated on May 26, 2015 following Charter's agreement to acquire Time Warner for about $80 billion.

The speculative grade liquidity rating is unchanged at SGL-2.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.