The Michaels Cos. Inc. ?s sales and earnings are improving faster than we expected as it captures share and improves merchandise, leading to stronger credit metrics. The company plans to issue a new $1.1 billion first-lien term loan maturing in 2033, $1.7 billion first-lien notes due in 2033, and $950 million second-lien notes maturing in 2034, using net proceeds to repay existing first-lien and unsecured debt. It will also upsize its asset-based lending (ABL) facility (unrated) to $1.1 billion and extend the maturity to 2031. We affirmed our ?B-? issuer credit rating on Michaels and revised our outlook to positive from stable. At the same time, we assigned our ?B-? issue-level rating and ?3? recovery rating to the proposed first-lien
