Houston-based Ascend Performance Materials plans to issue a $1.1 billion term loan B and use the proceeds to refinance existing company debt and fund a dividend to shareholders. We are assigning our 'BB-' issuer credit rating to Ascend. We are also assigning our 'BB-' issue-level and '3' recovery ratings to the company's proposed $1.1 billion term loan B. The proposed capital structure also includes a $400 million asset-based lending revolving credit facility, which is unrated. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Ascend (including APM Disc Holdings LLC) will continue to improve operating results and overall profitability and generate steady free cash flow that allows it to maintain debt to EBITDA at or below 4x. NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings)
