Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Royal Bank of Scotland launched syndication of a $600 million term loan for Crown Castle International at a bank meeting Thursday. Pricing is LIBOR plus 1 3/4%. It will be used to back a stock repurchase. A call to Jay Brown, treasurer at the wireless tower operator in Houston, was not returned by press time.
Moody's Investors Service assigned a B3 corporate family rating. It says in a report that it expects the fundamentals of the company to remain favorable the next few years and Crown's good market position will enable strong earnings and good cash flow momentum to continue. The rating also considers the company's increased scale following its acquisition of Global Signal and the expected stability of its revenues derived from contractual relationships with wireless operators.