Research Update: CCI Buyer Inc. (Consumer Cellular) Assigned 'B-' Rating Following Acquisition; Outlook Stable

U.S.-based mobile virtual network operator CCI Buyer Inc (doing business as Consumer Cellular) plans to raise $1.4 billion of debt financing to support its acquisition by GTCR (not rated). We are assigning our 'B-' issuer credit rating to the company. We are also assigning our 'B-' issue-level and '3' recovery rating to the company's proposed first-lien credit facilities, consisting of a $100 million revolving credit facility due 2025 and $1.1 billion first-lien term loan due 2027. The '3' recovery rating reflects our expectation of meaningful (rounded estimate: 55%) recovery in an event of a payment default. At the same time, we are assigning our 'CCC' issue-level and '6' recovery rating to the proposed $300 million second-lien term loan. The '6'

...- U.S.-based mobile virtual network operator CCI Buyer Inc (doing business as Consumer Cellular) plans to raise $1.4 billion of debt financing to support its acquisition by GTCR (not rated). - We are assigning our 'B-' issuer credit rating to the company. - We are also assigning our 'B-' issue-level and '3' recovery rating to the company's proposed first-lien credit facilities, consisting of a $100 million revolving credit facility due 2025 and $1.1 billion first-lien term loan due 2027. The '3' recovery rating reflects our expectation of meaningful (rounded estimate: 55%) recovery in an event of a payment default. - At the same time, we are assigning our '###' issue-level and '6' recovery rating to the proposed $300 million second-lien term loan. The '6' recovery rating reflects our expectation of negligible (rounded estimate: 0%) recovery in an event of a payment default. - The stable outlook reflects our expectation that healthy subscriber growth and favorable pricing on the company's...

Research Update