S&P gives B-, CCC to Information Resources loans

S&P said it affirmed its B- issuer credit rating on Information Resources Inc. and removed all its ratings on the company from CreditWatch with negative implications, where S&P placed them on Oct. 22 following IRI's announcement that it is issuing debt to fund its acquisition by Vestar Capital.

The outlook is negative.

S&P said it also assigned a B- issuer credit rating to new borrower IRI Holdings Inc. under the proposed transaction. S&P will withdraw all the ratings on IRI once the existing debt is fully repaid as part of the transaction.

S&P assigned a B- issue-level rating and 3 recovery rating to the newly issued first-lien term debt, including the $80 million revolving credit facility due in 2023 and $1.21 billion term loan due in 2025. The 3 recovery rating indicates an expectation for meaningful (50%-70%; rounded estimate: 55%) recovery of principal in the event of a payment default.

At the same time, S&P assigned a CCC issue-level rating and 6 recovery rating to the new $390 million second-lien term loan due in 2026. The 6 recovery rating indicates an expectation for negligible (0%-10%; rounded estimate: 5%) recovery of principal in the event of a payment default.

“The rating affirmation and negative outlook reflect the significant increase in IRI's leverage following the transaction as pro forma adjusted leverage in 2018 will rise to about 10.5x and remain elevated at around 9x in 2019,” S&P said in a news release.

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