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NEW YORK (AP) -- Standard & Poor's Ratings Service on Thursday lowered the corporate credit rating on eye care company Bausch & Lomb Inc. to "B+" from "BB+" and removed all the ratings from CreditWatch. The non-investment grade rating is reflective of the company's expected $3.67 billion takeover by private equity firm Warburg Pincus, S&P said. The deal will be financed with $1.9 billion of common equity and $3.2 billion of debt, S&P said, which will result in very high debt leverage. The ratings service assigned the company's senior secured credit facilities a rating of "BB-" with a recovery rating of "2." S&P also assigned a "B-" rating to the Rochester, N.Y.-based company's proposed $400 million senior unsecured notes, $175 million senior pay-in-kind toggle notes and $175 million senior subordinated notes. S&P said the outlook on the company is stable.
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