S&P rates IMS Health loan BB-

Standard & Poor's said the B+ corporate credit rating on IMS Health Inc. remains on CreditWatch positive, where it was placed on Jan. 2.

The agency also said it assigned a BB- rating to the company's proposed $1 billion senior secured credit facility and the amended and extended term loan B.

These ratings are not on CreditWatch.

The new facility consists of a $500 million revolving credit facility and a $500 million delayed draw term loan A with both due in 2019. The term loan B consists of a $1.75 billion dollar-denominated tranche and a €746.9 million euro-denominated tranche; the term loan B matures in 2021.

Upon completion of the initial public offering, S&P said it will revise the existing senior secured recovery rating to 3 from 2, reflecting the higher amount of secured debt following the issuance of the term loan A with an unchanged enterprise value.

The B unsecured rating on the $500 million 6% unsecured senior notes due November 2020 also remains on CreditWatch positive; the recovery rating of 5 is unchanged and reflects 10% to 30% expected default recovery.

This rating will be raised one notch once the IPO is complete, the agency said.

The B+ corporate credit rating and the B senior unsecured issue-level rating remain on CreditWatch with positive implications, where it was placed Jan. 2, S&P said.

The BB- senior secured rating is not on CreditWatch because it will not change following completion of the IPO, the agency added.

The ratings reflect the company's highly leveraged financial risk profile with debt leverage that is about 6.5x, S&P said.

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