S&P rates Wind Hellas notes B

S&P said it assigned a B long-term corporate credit rating to Largo Intermediary Holdings Ltd., the parent of Wind Hellas Telecommunications SA.

The agency also assigned a B long-term corporate credit rating to Largo's wholly owned financing subsidiary Crystal Almond Sarl, which is considered a core group entity.

S&P also assigned B issue rating to the €250 million senior secured notes issued by Crystal Almond.

The outlook is stable.

The assignment of new ratings follows Wind Hellas' issuance of €250 million of senior secured notes.

The proceeds, together with a €25 million of equity contribution, were used to repay an existing term loan facility, which amounts to €182 million including interest, and provide additional liquidity for accelerating investment outlays in coming years, the agency explained.

These include network investment plans in Wind Hellas' fixed-line segment since it is considering participating in the bidding process for deployment of a next generation network, S&P said, and the remaining license payments from the spectrum auction allocated in 2014.

The group's business risk profile is primarily constrained by a view of very high country risk in Greece, where economic conditions are challenging, unemployment is very high at about 25% and capital controls are still in place, the agency said.

The stable outlook reflects an expectation that Wind Hellas will continue to stabilize revenues and maintain adequate liquidity with modest growth in revenues and EBITDA margins in 2017, S&P said.

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