U.S.-based Chobani Global Holdings LLC is seeking to issue new debt to refinance first-lien debt and repay a portion of its second-lien term loan. We assigned our 'B' corporate credit rating to Chobani, reflecting its high starting leverage, which is near 8x. At the same time, we assigned our 'B+' issue-level and '2' recovery ratings to the company's proposed $800 million first-lien credit facilities, consisting of a $150 million revolving credit facility due in 2021 and a $650 million first-lien term loan due in 2023. We also assigned our 'CCC+' issue-level and '6' recovery ratings to the company's existing $750 million second-lien term loan due in March 2020. The stable outlook reflects our expectation for leverage to drop below 7x
