Research Update: FiberCop S.p.A Rated 'BB+' Following Push-Down Merger Completion; Outlook Negative; Optics Bidco SpA 'BB+' Rating Withdrawn

Italy-based fixed-line wholesale services provider company Optics Bidco SpA (Optics) completed a merger of its subsidiary FiberCop SpA (FiberCop), with FiberCop as the sole surviving entity and issuer of the company?s senior secured notes and senior secured loans. We therefore assigned our ?BB+? long-term issuer credit rating to FiberCop and affirmed our ?BB+? issue-level rating on the existing senior secured notes, with a recovery rating of ?3? (recovery prospect: 65%). The ratings are in line with our previous credit assessment of Optics because we view the company?s credit assessment as unchanged. With the merger, we withdrew our issuer credit rating on Optics; its debt has been transferred to FiberCop. The negative outlook reflects our expectation that FiberCop has no rating

...Rating Component Scores Component Foreign currency issuer credit rating ##+/NEGATIVE/-- Local currency issuer credit rating ##+/NEGATIVE/-- Business risk Strong Country risk Intermediate Risk Industry risk Intermediate Risk Competitive position Strong Financial risk Highly Leveraged Cash flow/leverage Highly Leveraged Anchor ## Diversification/portfolio effect Neutral/Undiversified Capital structure Neutral Financial policy Neutral Liquidity Adequate Management and governance Neutral Comparable rating analysis Positive Stand-alone credit profile ##+...

Research Update