Moody's Upgrades Mitel's Corporate Rating to "B2"
Standard & Poor's Maintains Corporate Rating at "B"
OTTAWA, Jan. 10, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mitel® (Nasdaq: MITL ) (TSX: MNW ), a leading provider of cloud and software-based unified communications and collaboration (UCC) solutions, today announced that Moody's and Standard & Poor's have published their respective ratings of the company's proposed US$355 million term loan. The debt is being issued in conjunction with the company's previously announced acquisition of Aastra Technologies and to refinance existing debt issued by Mitel.
Moody's assigned a "Ba3" rating to the new term debt and upgraded Mitel's corporate family rating, or CFR, to "B2" from "B3" with a "stable" outlook.
Standard & Poor's issued a "B+" rating to the new credit, assigning it a Recovery Rating of "2". The agency corporate rating of "B" on Mitel with a "positive" ratings outlook is unchanged.
Steve Spooner, Chief Financial Officer of Mitel, commented, "We view the ratings issued for our proposed new credit facility as a strong endorsement of the decision to combine Mitel and Aastra to become one of our industry's leading companies. Our ability to integrate quickly and generate the $50 million in synergies we have outlined will enable us to further strengthen the balance sheet of the billion dollar company this merger creates."
Forward Looking Statements
Some of the statements in this press release are forward-looking statements (or forward-looking information) within the meaning of applicable U.S. and Canadian securities laws. These include statements using the words target, outlook, may, will, should, could, estimate, continue, expect, intend, plan, predict, potential, project and anticipate, and similar statements which do not describe the present or provide information about the past. There is no guarantee that the expected events or expected results will actually occur. Such statements reflect the current views of management of Mitel and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on many assumptions and factors, including general economic and market conditions, industry conditions, corporate approvals, regulatory approvals, operational factors and other factors. Any changes in such assumptions or factors could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. All forward-looking statements attributable to Mitel, or persons acting on its behalf, and are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements set forth in this paragraph. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. In addition, material risks that could cause results of operations to differ include the merged company's ability to achieve or sustain profitability in the future; fluctuations in the quarterly and annual revenues and operating results; fluctuations in foreign exchange rates; current and ongoing global economic instability; intense competition; reliance on channel partners for a significant component of sales; dependence upon a small number of outside contract manufacturers to manufacture products; the ability to successfully integrate the acquisition and realize certain synergies; and, our ability to implement and achieve our business strategies successfully. Additional risks are described under the heading "Risk Factors" in Mitel's Annual Report on Form 10-K and in Mitel's 10-Q for the six month period ended October 31, 2013 and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 5, 2013. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Except as required by law, we do not have any intention or obligation to update or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, future events or developments, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting the forward-looking statements.
About Mitel
Mitel® (Nasdaq: MITL ) (TSX: MNW ) is a global provider of unified communications and collaboration (UCC) software, solutions and services that enable organizations to conduct business anywhere, over any medium with the device of their choice. Through a single cloud-ready software stream, Mitel's Freedom architecture provides customers in over 100 countries the flexibility and simplicity needed to support today's dynamic work environment. For more information visit www.mitel.com .
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Amy MacLeod (media) 613-592-2122 x71245, Malcolm Brown (industry analysts) 613-592-2122 x71246, Michael McCarthy (investor relations) 469-574-8134,
