Moody's upgrades Sprint

Moody's Investors Service said it upgraded several ratings of Sprint Communications, Inc., including the company's corporate family rating to Ba3 from B1, the probability of default rating to Ba3-PD from B1-PD, and the senior unsecured rating to B1 from B3 following the closing of the merger agreement with SoftBank Corp. and a separate merger agreement with Clearwire Corp.

The agency also upgraded Sprint's junior guaranteed unsecured notes to Ba2 from Ba3 and senior unsecured guaranteed bank credit facility to Baa3 from Ba1.

Moody's also affirmed the company's speculative grade liquidity rating of SGL-1, indicating a very good liquidity position.

The outlook is stable.

SoftBank, with an issuer rating of Ba1, acquired a 78% stake in Sprint, a transaction valued at $21.6 billion. Moody's said it believes that the merger with SoftBank will help Sprint to improve its operating performance in the highly competitive U.S. wireless industry due to the infusion of $5 billion of new equity capital and SoftBank's track record of operational turnarounds of wireless companies in Japan (increasing market share and expanding margins). The merger with Clearwire, a company with a vast holding of spectrum, addresses Sprint's spectrum needs for at least the next several years.

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