Fitch Rates Willis North America's 10-Yr Senior Notes.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 Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. assigns a 'BBB' rating to Willis North America Inc.'s (WNA WNA World Nuclear Association (UK) WNA Wisconsin Nurses Association WNA Weather Normalization Adjustment WNA Wireless Network Access WNA Wireless Network Administration WNA Wednesday Night Acro WNA White Noise Acceleration ) $600 million senior note offering due 2017. The rating is the same as the ratings for WNA's existing senior debt. Fitch has also revised the Rating Outlook to Stable from Positive. In addition, Fitch is affirming existing ratings as shown below. Fitch anticipates that WNA will use the net proceeds Net Proceeds The amount received after all costs are deducted from the sale of a piece of property or security. Notes: In the case of an investor selling a security, net proceeds represent the proceeds from the sale minus any trading costs (i.e. commissions). of the offering for general corporate purposes including repayment of the outstanding borrowings under the revolving credit Revolving Credit A line of credit where the customer pays a commitment fee and is then allowed to use the funds when they are needed. It is usually used for operating purposes, fluctuating each month depending on the customers current cash flow needs. facility and to repurchase common stock under the existing stock repurchase Stock repurchase A firm's repurchase of outstanding shares of its common stock. program. The Outlook revision to Stable from Positive reflects moderately increased uncertainty following this significant change to WNA'S capital structure. Fitch estimates that WNA's debt-to-capital ratio following these planned transactions will increase from 35% at year-end 2006. Additionally, Fitch expects WNA's debt-to-EBITDA and operating EBIT-interest coverage ratios, which were 1.3 times (x) and 15x in 2006, respectively, to be impacted negatively by this transaction in 2007. Importantly, Fitch believes that WNA's key credit fundamentals will remain within ranges that are adequate to support existing ratings. WNA's ratings continue to reflect the company's recent favorable operating performance, excellent operating margins relative to peers, strong cash flow and debt servicing capability, manageable debt levels, established market position, and management experience. Fitch believes that WNA's insurance brokerage operations have outperformed those of its closest competitors for several years and that it will continue to do so in the near term. These positive factors are offset by a significant amount of intangible assets, which is common in the brokerage industry due to acquisition activity. Fitch also recognizes Willis' smaller size and comparative lack of business diversity relative to its larger global broker peers, and the effects of the property/casualty insurance industry's cyclical nature on Willis' earnings and cash flow. Fitch has assigned the following rating with a Stable Outlook: Willis North America Inc. --$600 million senior notes due March, 2017 'BBB'. In addition Fitch affirms the following ratings with a Stable Outlook: Willis North America Inc. --Issuer Default Rating (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. ) 'BBB'; --$250 million senior notes 5.125% due July 15, 2010 'BBB'; --$350 million senior notes 5.625% due July 15, 2015 'BBB'. Willis Group Holdings, Ltd. --Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BBB'. 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. The ratings above have been initiated by Fitch as a service to investors. |
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