Fitch Downgrades SLM's Short-Term to 'F1' On Buyout Announcement; On Rating Watch Negative.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- Fitch Ratings has downgraded the short-term Issuer rating of SLM Corporation (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : SLM See service level management system and spatial light modulator. ) to 'F1' from 'F1+', and placed all of SLM's ratings on Rating Watch Negative, following the announcement that a group of investors including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world. , and private equity firm J.C. Flowers, would purchase the company. The transaction is valued at $25 billion and will be funded with debt and equity. A complete list of ratings affected by this action is detailed at the end of this release. The Negative Rating Watch reflects the belief that the transaction will result in increased balance sheet leverage and will negatively impact risk-adjusted capitalization. During the Rating Watch period, Fitch will evaluate SLM's targeted capital structure, liquidity profile, and operating performance. Fitch cannot say with certainty what the resulting ratings will be, however, they may decline by multiple notches from the current levels. The merger is subject to shareholder approval and is expected to close in the third or fourth quarter of 2007. Fitch's ratings of JPMorgan Chase (IDR IDR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Indonesian Rupiah. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. 'AA-') and Bank of America (IDR 'AA') are not affected by this transaction. Fitch has downgraded and placed the following on Rating Watch Negative: SLM Corporation: --Short-term Issuer to 'F1' from 'F1+'; --Commercial Paper to 'F1' from 'F1+'. Fitch has also placed the following on Rating Watch Negative: SLM Corporation --Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+'; --Senior debt 'A+'; --Preferred Stock to 'A'. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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