Moody’s reviews ista

Moody's Investors Service said it placed the B1 corporate family rating and B1-PD probability of default rating of Trionista TopCo GmbH, the intermediate holding company of ista International GmbH, on review for upgrade.

Concurrently, the agency placed on review for upgrade the B3 rating of the €525 million of senior subordinated notes due 2021 issued by Trionista TopCo, as well as the Ba3 ratings of the €1.4 billion equivalent senior secured credit facilities and €350 million senior secured notes due 2020 issued by Trionista HoldCo GmbH.

Moody’s said the action reflects ista's proposed acquisition by Cheung Kong Property Holdings Ltd. (CKP, A2 stable). Cheung Kong entered into a joint venture formation agreement with CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. (CKI, majority owned subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd., A3 stable), pursuant to which the purchasing entity will become a 65/35 joint venture of Cheung Kong and CK Infrastructure.

"The review was prompted by the announcement that ista's shareholder CVC Capital Partners agreed to sell its majority stake to CKP. The review for upgrade on ista's ratings reflects the potential strengthening of the group's credit profile once the transaction becomes effective, assuming that ista will be fully integrated into the substantially larger and financially stronger CKP group, likely in form of a joint venture of CKP and CKI," Matthias Heck, Moody's lead analyst for ista, said in a news release.

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