Montreal-based Valeant is adding approximately $7.5 billion of debt to fund the acquisition of Bausch&Lomb (B&L) and to refinance B&L's debt. Pro forma adjusted leverage will increase to 5.7x (excluding synergies). We are lowering the corporate credit rating to 'BB-' from 'BB'. We are lowering our existing senior secured issue-level ratings to 'BB' from 'BBB-' and assigning a 'BB' issue-level rating to the proposed $4.050 billion of term loans. We are also lowering our existing senior unsecured issue-level rating to 'B' from 'BB-' and assigning a 'B' issue-level rating to the proposed $3.225 billion of senior unsecured notes. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that while credit metrics could improve, based on good free cash flow, the company's
