S&P upgrades Leap, Cricket

Standard & Poor's said it raised its issue-level rating on the senior unsecured debt at Leap Wireless International Inc. subsidiary Cricket Communications Inc. to B- from CCC+ and revised the recovery rating to 3 from 5.

The 3 recovery rating indicates an expectations for meaningful recovery in the event of a payment default.

S&P said the upgrade reflects its revised approach to recovery analysis of wireless carriers in its default scenarios. In Leap's case, this resulted in a higher enterprise value for Leap such that the unsecured notes at Cricket had sufficiently higher recovery prospects to revise the recovery rating to 3, which resulted in the issue-level upgrade to B-, the same as the corporate credit rating on Leap.

All other ratings on Leap and Cricket remain unchanged, including the B+ senior secured debt rating on Cricket and the CCC senior unsecured debt rating on Leap. The outlook remains stable.

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