S&P rates BioClinica B-; loans B, CCC

S&P said it assigned its B- long-term corporate credit rating to BioClinica Holding I LP.

The outlook is stable.

The agency also assigned its B issue ratings to the first-lien term loan and revolving credit facility. The debt is issued by a co-borrower group of BioClinica-Synowledge Holdings Corp., BioClinica-eClinical Holdings LLC, BioClinica Synarc Corp. and BioClinica Clinverse Corp. The recovery rating is 2, reflecting expectations for substantial (70%-90%; the lower half of the range) recovery in the event of a default.

At the same time, S&P assigned its CCC issue rating to the same co-borrower group's second-lien term loan. The recovery rating is 6, reflecting our expectation for negligible (0%-10%) recovery in the event of a default.

At the close of the transaction, S&P expects to withdraw the B- corporate credit rating on Synarc-Biocore Holdings LLC (the issuer of debt under the current capital structure) as well as the issue level ratings on this entity's debt, as it will be redeemed.

"Our B- corporate credit rating with a stable outlook on BioClinica reflects our expectation that the company will operate with debt leverage of about 8x at the close of the transaction," S&P credit analyst Matthew Todd said in a news release.

The agency believes that leverage is likely to remain high, despite the potential for EBITDA growth, because it expects the company would prioritize acquisitions, particularly in the imaging space, over delveraging.

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