BD White Birch Investment LLC is the third-largest manufacturer of newsprint in North America, a business we view to be in long-term secular decline. Performance through the first half of 2015 was notably worse than anticipated due primarily to ongoing weakness in global newsprint pricing. As a result of the weak performance, leverage measures, including debt to EBITDA and interest coverage, have deteriorated to levels that do not support the current rating. We are lowering our corporate credit rating on BD White Birch to 'B' from 'B+'. In conjunction with the lower corporate credit rating, we are lowering our issue-level rating on the company's term loan to 'B' from 'B+'. The recovery rating remains '3'. The outlook is negative, reflecting
