...October 20, 2020 - $500 million of new senior secured payment-in-kind (PIK) toggle notes are to be issued by two newly created financing subsidiaries to provide additional funds for Aspen Group's operations, and make a distribution to its shareholders, Apollo. - The transaction will materially increase the group's financial leverage and reduce its fixed-charge coverage. That said, we still expect Aspen Group to maintain capital adequacy above the '###' level. - We are therefore affirming our ratings on Aspen Group. At the same time, we are assigning our preliminary '##+' long-term issuer credit ratings to the two new subsidiaries, Highlands Holdings Bond Issuer Ltd. and Highlands Holdings Bond Co-Issuer Inc. (collectively, the Highlands Issuers) and our preliminary '##+' issue rating to the notes. - The stable outlook indicates that the group is likely to maintain its strong competitive position within the global specialty and reinsurance market, and strong capital, at least at the '###'...
