U.S.-based veterinary practice management company Pathway Vet Alliance LLC (d/b/a Thrive Pet Healthcare) recently completed a debt exchange that S&P Global Ratings viewed as tantamount to a default because the company's lenders did not receive their promised compensation. Although the transaction improved Thrive's liquidity and extended its maturity profile, we expect it will still generate significant cash flow deficits. In addition, the company's capital structure now has more debt, thus we view it as likely unsustainable. We raised our issuer credit rating on Thrive to 'CCC+' from 'SD' (selective default). At the same time, we assigned our 'B' issue-level rating and '1' recovery rating to the company's new money first-out term loan and exchanged first-out, first-lien term loan and our
