S&P upgrades E.W. Scripps

S&P said it raised E.W. Scripps Co.’s issuer rating to B+ from B, its secured debt to BB from BB- and its unsecured debt to B from CCC+. The secured debt’s recovery rating remains 1; however, the agency revised the unsecured recovery rating to 5 from 6, reflecting the increased recovery for unsecured debtholders after the $400 million unsecured notes due 2025 were redeemed and the company repaid $100 million of its senior secured term loan.

“We expect pro forma average trailing-eight-quarters leverage will decline below 5.5x in mid-2022. Growth in Scripps' core advertising revenue at both its local TV station and network segments has exceeded our expectations for the first three quarters of 2021, with core advertising at the local TV stations reaching 2019 levels in the third quarter,” S&P said in a press release.

The agency noted the company hiked its free cash flow guidance for 2021 to $255 million-$265 million from $210 million-$240 million earlier in the year.

The outlook is stable.

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