S&P cuts StoneMor Partners

Standard & Poor's said it placed its B corporate credit rating on StoneMor Partners LP on CreditWatch, with negative implications. At the same time, the agency said it lowered its senior unsecured issue-level rating to CCC+ from B-, and placed the new rating on CreditWatch with negative implications.

In addition, S&P said it revised the recovery rating on the debt to 6 from 5. The 6 recovery rating indicates the agency's current expectation for negligible recovery of principal in the event of payment default, compared with the previous expectation of modest recovery.

"Our low speculative-grade ratings on StoneMor reflect the company's weak business risk profile due to its concentration in the highly fragmented and competitive cemetery services industry with limited (although somewhat predictable) growth prospects offset by rising cremation rates," said S&P credit analyst Tahira Wright in a news release.

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