On July 26, 2007, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its ratings on Brentwood, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems Inc. The corporate credit rating was lowered to 'B+' from 'BB-'. The ratings were removed from CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications on March 20, 2007, following the announcement that the company had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Triad Hospitals Inc.; the transaction is valued at about $6.8 billion. The rating outlook is stable. The downgrade reflects our lower rating opinion of Community considering its weakened financial risk profile due to the financing of the just-completed acquisition of Triad. Also, Standard&Poor's assigned its bank loan and recovery ratings to Community's $7.2 billion senior secured credit facilities,
