Although U.S. cable operator Cable One Inc. is blocked from completing its acquisition of the remaining interest in Mega Broadband Communications Investments Intermediate I LLC (MBI) by a U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York temporary restraining order, S&P Global Ratings expects the acquisition will ultimately close, increasing consolidated gross leverage above 5x from about 4x on June 30, 2026. Cable One also faces heightened refinancing risk with about $2.3 billion of debt maturing within the next 18 months. We believe the combination of the MBI transaction uncertainty, weakening subscriber trends, and a higher interest rate environment create a challenging refinancing backdrop. Therefore, we lowered all our ratings on Cable One by two notches, including the issuer
