Global trading communication systems, compliance solutions, and networking services provider IPC Corp.'s first-lien maturity is now months away and will likely result in a distressed restructuring. IPC's debt burden remains elevated relative to its earnings base, with adjusted debt to EBITDA of about 9.5x, which we view as unsustainable. Therefore, we lowered all of our ratings on IPC by one notch, including our issuer credit rating, to 'CCC-' from 'CCC'. The negative outlook reflects that we could lower the rating if IPC announces its intention to undertake an exchange offer or similar restructuring that we classify as distressed. The negative outlook reflects a high likelihood that we will lower the rating further over the next few months due to the
