...TORONTO (Standard & Poor's) Jan. 21, 2015--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today said its 'B' issue-level rating and '3' recovery rating on U.S.-based Heartland Dental Care LLC's first-lien term loan due 2018 are unchanged following the company's $75 million add-on to the loan. The company plans to use proceeds to repay its revolver and add cash to the balance sheet. The 'B' corporate credit rating and negative outlook on Heartland remain unchanged. Our 'B' corporate credit rating on Heartland reflects the company's participation in the highly fragmented and increasingly competitive dental services industry, which has low barriers to entry, and our belief that Heartland's growth goals are fairly aggressive. Heartland has a better payor profile (with minimal government revenue and no capitated payments) than some of its large peers and targets somewhat more affluent patients, which we believe gives it slightly more pricing flexibility. This supports our assessment of business risk as...
