The recent affirmations of our ratings on Capital Automotive LLC (CARS) acknowledged the benefits of a completed loan amendment and extension, which helped alleviate our previous concerns regarding CARS' refinancing and covenant pressures. Prior to the loan extension, the revolver was scheduled to mature in December 2009, and the large term loan was scheduled to mature in December 2010. By implementing the loan amendment and extension, CARS pushed out most of its near-term debt. However, the company does still face $167 million of debt maturities in December 2010, which the company plans to fund with asset sales proceeds, debt borrowings, and retained cash flow from operations. Despite modest deleveraging following the amendment, CARS' leverage remains high, and we expect debt
