Albertsons Cos. Inc. (ACI) has reduced debt more than $1.4 billion in the past year and we expect continued focus on operational improvement instead of material acquisitions through fiscal 2019. As a result, we are raising our issuer credit rating on ACI to 'B+' from 'B'. The outlook is stable. We are raising issue-level ratings one notch in conjunction with this upgrade and are not changing any recovery ratings at this time. This includes raising the company's senior secured term loan rating to 'BB', the ACI unsecured notes and Safeway notes rating to 'BB-', and the New Albertsons notes rating to 'B-'. While the '2' recovery rating on the Safeway notes remains unchanged, the rounded estimate on these instruments is
