We expect U.S. Foodservice's proposed refinancing to lower interest costs and modestly improve credit metrics. We are assigning our preliminary 'B' corporate credit rating to the U.S.-based food service distributor. We are also assigning our preliminary 'B-' rating to the proposed $425 million senior secured term loan and preliminary 'CCC+' rating to the proposed $400 million senior unsecured notes. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that the company should be able to absorb some food and fuel cost inflation without a meaningful deterioration in credit metrics. CHICAGO (Standard&Poor's) May 2, 2011--Standard&Poor's Rating Services said today it assigned its preliminary 'B' corporate credit rating to Rosemont, Ill.-based U.S. Foodservice Inc. (USF). At the same time, we assigned
