08.01.2013 22:36:00
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Comcast Corporation -- Moody's assigns Comcast's new bond issuance a Baa1 rating
New York, January 08, 2013 -- Moody's Investors Service assigned a Baa1 rating to Comcast Corporation's (Comcast) new benchmark size senior unsecured bonds, which include 3 tranches of 10-year, 20-year and 30-year bonds. Comcast's wholly-owned cable subsidiaries Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, Comcast Cable Holdings, LLC, Comcast MO Group, Inc. and Comcast MO of Delaware, LLC will guarantee the proposed bonds and it is anticipated that they will rank pari pasu with the company's existing senior unsecured indebtedness. Net proceeds from the issuance will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes, and together with the company's cash balance of $4.7 billion at 9/30/12 (excluding cash at NBCUniversal Media, LLC -- NBCU; Baa2 senior unsecured), will be available to repay its upcoming maturities of $2.4 billion in 2013. We expect the company to maintain leverage (2.0x at 9/30/12; incorporating Moody's standard adjustments and excluding NBCU since only the company's cable assets support its debt on a first priority basis) towards the lower end of the range appropriate for its Baa1 rating, such that it will have significant financial flexibility to both return capital to shareholders as well as accrue capacity (in addition to cash built up at NBCU) to finance an acquisition of the remaining stake in NBCU held by GE.