NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) March 14, 2016--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today assigned its 'BBB-' issue-level rating to U.S. electronic payment processing services provider Total System Services Inc.'s (TSS') announced senior unsecured notes offering. The company intends to use the proceeds to fund its acquisition of TransFirst LLC. The 'BBB-' corporate credit rating on TSS is unchanged. The rating reflects our view of the company's defensible market position as one of the major outsourced service providers to the U.S. card issuing community and that the acquisition of TransFirst will result in weaker credit measures with initial pro forma leverage in the high-3x area. However, the acquisition will augment TSS' existing merchant processing business with incremental clients and processing volume.
