...December 10, 2019 - Staines-upon-Thames, U.K.-headquartered specialty pharmaceutical company Mallinckrodt PLC recently completed a distressed exchange that swapped $706 million of various unsecured notes for $323 million of new 10% second-lien notes due 2025 (not rated), reducing overall debt principal by about $383 million. - The transaction only reduces Mallinckrodt's 2020 maturity by about $83 million or 12%, so we believe there is still elevated risk for another distressed exchange or a liquidity event in 2020 because the company has over $600 million of debt maturing in April and uncertain cash requirements from ongoing litigation. - While Mallinckrodt continues to generate positive free cash flow, we think the company's ability to access the capital markets to refinance debt maturities is limited given uncertainty around its ultimate exposure to opioid liabilities, which we think could be significant. - We are raising our long-term issuer rating on Mallinckrodt to '###' from '##'...
