Posted at 8:32 a.m., Friday, March 30, 2007
Standard & Poor's cuts Hawaiian Telcom to B- rating
Bloomberg News Service
Hawaiian Telcom Communications Inc., formed in May 2005 when Carlyle Group bought the Hawaiian operations of Verizon Communications Inc., yesterday was cut one level, to B-, by Standard & Poor's.The rating service cited Hawaiian Telcom's expenses and delays resulting from the need to build out back-office operations after the acquisition as reasons for the downgrade.
Hawaiian Telcom has a "highly leveraged financial profile"' whose "profitability significantly lags its peers," S&P said.
The new S&P corporate rating lines up with the rating by Moody's Investors Service.
Hawaiian Telcom has $1.4 billion in debt serviced by revenue from 615,000 switched access lines.
