S&P cuts Wind Telecomunicazioni

Standard & Poor's said it lowered the long-term corporate credit rating on Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA to B+ from BB-, Wind Finance SL SA's second-lien bonds to BB- from BB and Wind Acquisition Finance SA's third-lien notes to B+ from BB-.

The outlook is stable.

The agency assigned a B+ long-term corporate credit rating to parent company Wind Acquisition Holdings Finance SpA.

The outlook is stable.

S&P also assigned a long-term issue rating of B- and a recovery rating of 6 to the $500 million-equivalent of payment-in-kind notes to be issued by financing vehicle Wind Acquisition Holdings Finance SA and guaranteed by WAHF SpA.

The actions follow WAHF SA's issue of $500 million-equivalent pay-in-kind note issue.

Proceeds will be sent upstream to various Weather group companies and will be made available to Weather Investments SpA in order to repay short-term maturities of its debt and to repay the bridge loan related to the acquisition of the assets of WIND Hellas Telecommunications SA (SD).

"Our downgrade of Wind Telecomunicazioni reflects what we view as a more aggressive financial policy than the one we had factored into our previous analysis, led by the company's ultimate parent Weather Investments SpA and involving increasing use of Wind Telecomunicazioni's balance sheet to sustain other, weaker companies across the Weather group," S&P analyst Leandro de Torres Zabala said in a statement.

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