...BOSTON (S&P Global Ratings) March 2, 2017--S&P Global Ratings today assigned its '###-' issue-level rating (two notches above the corporate credit rating) to Nashville-based HCA Inc.'s proposed $1,489 million senior secured term loan B-9. HCA is issuing the term loan to refinance its term loan B-6. The new term loan matures in 2023 (the same as the debt it refinances), but carries a lower interest rate. We assigned a '1' recovery rating to this debt, indicating our expectation of very high (90%-100%; rounded estimate: 95%) recovery for lenders in the event of a payment default. The issue-level ratings are the same as our ratings on the existing senior secured debt. Our '##' corporate credit rating on HCA reflects our view that its scale relative to other health care services peers should allow the company to better offset declining reimbursement rates with cost reduction efforts, and that its scale and market presence should aid in contract negotiations with commercial payors. In addition,...
