S&P rates HCA Healthcare BB

S&P said it affirmed the BB corporate credit rating on HCA Inc. and revised the outlook to positive from stable.

At the same time, the agency assigned a BB corporate credit rating to parent HCA Healthcare Inc., consistent with the policy of assigning a rating to the entity issuing the company's financial statements.

The outlook is positive.

In addition, S&P affirmed the BBB- issue-level rating on the senior secured debt and B+ issue-level rating on the unsecured debt issued by HCA Inc. The recovery ratings are 1 and 6, respectively. It also affirmed the B+ issue-level rating on the subordinated debt issued by HCA Healthcare. The recovery rating is 6.

S&P said HCA continues to generate very strong free cash flow and build debt capacity despite ongoing industry volatility and slightly weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings.

“The outlook reflects our view that HCA's resilience in a challenging operating environment combined with current leverage and free cash flow metrics result in credit quality that could be consistent with BB+ rating peers, while also reflecting the risk that financial policies could become more aggressive over the next few quarters,” the agency said in a news release.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.