U.S. bicycle components maker SRAM LLC has proposed a $725 million first-lien credit facility to refinance its existing first-lien credit facility and a portion of its existing second-lien credit facility. We expect SRAM to continue to use excess cash flow to repay debt such that leverage is at or below 4.5x by the end of 2013 and that over the intermediate term SRAM will continue to use excess cash to repay debt at least until leverage reaches 3.5x. We are raising our corporate credit rating on SRAM to 'BB-' from 'B+'. We are also assigning the proposed credit facility our 'BB-' issue-level rating, with a recovery rating of '4'. The stable rating outlook reflects our expectation that SRAM will continue
