UNH announced that it was acquiring Catamaran Corp., the fourth-largest pharmacy benefit manager in the U.S. for about $12.8 billion, financed from a combination of existing cash and new debt. We are affirming our ratings on UNH and revising the outlook to negative from stable. The negative outlook reflects our concern regarding the expected high financial leverage relative both to peers' and to historical levels. On March 30, 2015, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'A+/A-1' counterparty credit rating on United Health Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) and its 'AA' long-term counterparty credit and financial strength rating ratings on the group's core operating companies (see list), and revised the outlook to negative from stable. The outlook revision is driven by the
