S&P Global Ratings on Sept. 10 affirmed its BB issuer rating on TEGNA Inc. and removed all ratings from Creditwatch where they were placed with negative implications, following the completion of company's acquisition of TV and radio stations from Dispatch Broadcast Group.
Additionally, the rating agency assigned a BB issue-level rating to the company's proposed $900 million senior unsecured notes due in 2029. TEGNA intends to use the net proceeds of these notes to repay about $320 million of its unsecured notes due October and to repay approximately $290 million of its unsecured notes due July 2020 and borrowings under its revolving credit agreement.
S&P expects leverage to decline to 4.2x-4.4x in 2020 from about 5x pro forma in 2019 through a combination of EBITDA growth and debt repayment.
The stable outlook reflects S&P Global Ratings' view that TEGNA will not pursue additional leveraging transactions over the next year in order to focus on debt reduction. The rating agency expects the company will complete its acquisition of TV stations from Nexstar Media Group Inc. in late third quarter or early fourth quarter.
This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings.
