Weekly Downgrade Wrap-Up (Slow Week)
As usual, we have a week’s worth of ratings agency downgrades, upgrades, revisions and withdrawals on the debt of LBO-backed companies, via Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investor Services. It was a light week coming off the big Chrysler filing last week. No worries, two frequent downgraders, Ply Gem and First Data, didn’t disappoint. Company: First Data Corp. Sponsor: KKR Downgrade: Moody’s downgraded the company’s corporate family and probability of default ratings to B1 from b2. Highlights: “We expect slight revenue and EBITDA declines for 2009 with only modest recovery for 2010. As a result, we believe the company will not be able to significantly de-leverage until 2011 at the earliest, at which time the company faces increasing cash interest payments as the company's 10.55% unsecured PIK notes convert to cash pay after September 2011.”
