NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 4, 2019--S&P Global Ratings has assigned its 'AA' long-term rating to Florida's pro forma $224.17 million series 2019A turnpike revenue refunding bonds, issued for the Florida Turnpike Enterprise (FTE or the turnpike). The outlook is stable. The series 2019A bond proceeds will refund series 2009B Build America Bonds (Federally Taxable-Issuer Subsidy) outstanding, fund a reserve account, if necessary, and pay issuance costs. The refunding is for debt service savings without extending maturities. "The rating reflects our assessment of the combination of the turnpike's very strong enterprise risk profile and very strong financial risk profile," said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Joseph Pezzimenti. "The rating also reflects our opinion that the FTE serves one of the most-populous states that expects to have above-average population growth that we believe will support generally favorable traffic

SAN FRANCISCO (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 4, 2019--S&P Global Ratings raised its underlying rating (SPUR) to 'AA-' from 'A-' on the Poway Unified School District Public Financing Authority, Calif.'s series 2016A special tax revenue refunding bonds outstanding. The outlook is stable. The rating action reflects the application of our updated methodology "Special Assessment Debt," published April 2, 2018 on RatingsDirect. "The rating reflects our view of the authority's strong-to-very-strong economic fundamentals, adequate-to-strong district characteristics, and strong financial profile," said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Brian Phuvan. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that the local economy will remain strong-to-very-strong given its access to a broad and diverse metropolitan statistical area and very strong incomes.

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DALLAS (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 4, 2019--S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'AAA' long-term rating and 'AA' underlying rating for credit program to Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District (ISD), Texas' series 2019 unlimited-tax refunding bonds. At the same time, S&P Global Ratings affirmed its 'AA' underlying rating on the district's existing general obligation debt. The outlook on all ratings is stable. The 'AAA' long-term rating reflects our view of Cypress-Fairbanks ISD's eligibility for, and participation in, the Texas Permanent School Fund (PSF) bond guarantee program, which provides the security of a permanent fund of assets the district can use to meet debt service on bonds guaranteed by the program. The district continues to experience steady tax base growth, which has aided in building its very strong available general fund balance but also led to high overall net debt per capita and moderately high ove

We forecast that U.S.-based Prestige Brands Inc. will continue to use its free cash flow for debt repayment, causing its leverage metric to fall below 5.5x by fiscal year-end 2019 (March 31, 2019) before improving to less than 5.0x in fiscal year 2020. We are revising our outlook on Prestige to stable from negative and are affirming our 'B+' issuer credit rating on the company. At the same time, we are affirming our 'BB' issue-level rating on the company's secured term loan B, raising our issue-level rating on its senior unsecured notes to 'B' from 'B-', and revising our recovery rating on the unsecured debt to '5' from '6'. The '5' recovery rating indicates our expectation for modest recovery (10%-30%; rounded estimate: 25%) in the event of a default due to Prestige's recent debt repayment, which has reduced the amount of debt outstanding at emergence under our simulated default scenario. The stable outlook

OVERVIEW We reviewed Vermont Student Assistance Corp.'s series 2012-B, which is backed by a pool of private student loans originated under Vermont Student Assistance Corp.'s deferred variable-rate Advantage loan program. We raised our rating on the class A-2 notes to 'AAA (sf)' and removed it from CreditWatch with positive implications. The upgrade reflects our view of the collateral performance and that the increased credit enhancement is sufficient to support the notes at the 'AAA' rating stress. NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 4, 2019--S&P Global Ratings today raised its rating on the class A-2 notes issued from Vermont Student Assistance Corp.' s (VSAC's) series 2012-B to 'AAA (sf)' from 'A (sf)' and removed it from CreditWatch, where we place it with positive implications on Oct. 10, 2018. The upgrade reflects our view that the growth in credit enhancement, resulting from the turbo payment mechanism, as

Novelty gift and Halloween retailer SSH Holdings Inc.(doing business as Spencer Spirit) has reported better-than-anticipated results through the fiscal 2018 third quarter, which includes the very important Halloween season, and we expect continued moderate EBITDA growth over the next 12 months. We raised the issuer credit rating to 'B-' from 'CCC+', and revised the outlook to stable from negative. The stable outlook incorporates our expectation that mid-single-digit EBITDA growth will support steady improvement in credit metrics and moderately positive free operating cash flow over the next year. NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 4, 2019—S&P Global Ratings today took the rating actions listed above. The rating action reflects our view that operating performance and credit metrics will continue to improve over the next 12 months, increasing the likelihood that the company could successfully refinance its debt at par. Year-to-date results are ahe

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CENTENNIAL (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 4, 2019--S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook to positive from stable and affirmed its 'AA-' long-term rating and underlying rating (SPUR) on Carson City, Nev.'s general obligation (GO) bonds outstanding. At the same time, S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'AA-' long-term rating to the city's series 2019A GO (limited-tax) water bonds (estimated par amount: $7.0 million). The outlook is positive. "The revised outlook reflects the city's growing tax base through valuation increases and new construction in the community," said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Michael Parker. The city's assessed value has grown an additional 28% in the previous five years. The market value increases in recent years had led to greater market value per capita, an important component under our U.S. Local Governments General Obligation Methodology (published Sept. 12, 2013, on RatingsDirect). "The

OVERVIEW We affirmed our overall ABOVE AVERAGE ranking on First Tennessee Bank N.A. as a residential mortgage primary loan servicer of subordinate-lien loans. First Tennessee Bank N.A. is a primary loan servicer of subordinate-lien mortgages with its servicing operations primarily located in Tennessee. The outlook is stable. NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 4, 2019--S&P Global Ratings today affirmed its ABOVE AVERAGE ranking on First Tennessee Bank N.A. (FTB) as a residential mortgage primary servicer of subordinate-lien loans. The outlook is stable. Our ranking reflects: Solid senior and middle management experience and tenure with very limited turnover; A good internal control environment with no material internal or external audit issues identified; Overall very low staff turnover levels throughout the operations; Generally competitive servicing performance metrics with those of peer servicers we monitor; Elevated abandonment rates in the customer ser

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East Midlands Housing Group Ltd. (EMH), a recently announced strategic partner of Homes England, is seeking to develop 2,600 properties by the financial year 2023. Two thirds of the development plan will comprise general needs housing, which will continue to support EMH's strong financial performance. We are therefore affirming our 'A+' long-term issuer credit rating on EMH. The stable outlook is based on our view that EMH will continue to derive the majority of its revenues from traditional sources, keeping exposure to care services and sales-related activities low. LONDON (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 4, 2019--S&P Global Ratings today affirmed its 'A+' long-term issuer credit rating on U.K. social housing provider East Midlands Housing Group Ltd. (EMH). The outlook remains stable. At the same time, we affirmed our 'A+' long-term issue rating on the £200 million senior secured debt issued by EMH's subsidiary, EMH Treasury PLC, and

NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 4, 2019--S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'AAA' rating to Wake County, N.C.'s series 2019A public improvement general obligation (GO) bonds and series 2019B refunding GO bonds. At the same time, S&P Global Ratings affirmed its 'AAA' rating on the county's existing GO debt and its 'AA+' rating on the county's existing appropriation-backed debt. The outlook on all ratings is stable. "The rating reflects our opinion of Wake County's very strong economy, management, budgetary flexibility, and liquidity," said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Kaiti Vartholomaios. The 2019 bonds constitute GOs of the county, secured by a pledge of its faith and credit and taxing power, without limitation as to rate or amount. The combined issuance of about $268.7 million will fund various capital projects for the county's schools and community college, permanently finance a portion of its bon

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FRANKFURT (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 4, 2019--S&P Global Ratings today withdrew its ratings on insurance company Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. of Hawaii Inc. (AA/Stable/--; FFHI) following the company's merger with its parent Fireman's Fund Insurance Company (FFIC). The withdrawal reflects the merger of FFHI and FFIC, which effectively took place on Dec. 31, 2018. FFHI was a wholly owned subsidiary of FFIC, a member of the Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty (AGCS) group. AGCS is the dedicated carrier for Allianz group's corporate and specialty operations. Because of the merger, all assets and liabilities were transferred from FFHI to FFIC. Thereafter, FFHI ceased to exist. In our view, the merger of the two entities does not change our assessment of the parent's strategy. We instead see it as a further step toward reducing AGCS group's complexity and using capital more efficiently. At the time of withdrawal, we assessed FFHI as core to

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Yankuang Group has high financial leverage and significant dependence on a single commodity. Meanwhile, the company benefits from its rich coal reserves, mid-large production scale, and geographically diversified operations. We see a high likelihood that Yankuang Group will receive timely and sufficient extraordinary support from China's Shandong provincial government in case of financial distress. We are assigning our 'BB' long-term issuer credit rating to Yankuang Group and our 'BB' long-term issue rating to the proposed U.S. dollar senior unsecured notes that the coal miner guarantees. The stable outlook reflects our view that Yankuang Group's leverage will remain high over the next 12 months. We also expect the company to continue to have a high likelihood of receiving extraordinary government support when needed. HONG KONG (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 4, 2019--S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'BB' long-term issuer credit rating

IDBI Bank has announced that it received INR145 billion in fresh capital from LIC on Dec. 28, 2018. This capital infusion is part payment for LIC's proposed acquisition of a 51% controlling stake in the India-based bank. We believe this capital infusion will help IDBI Bank meet its regulatory requirement. The bank's capital ratios have been below the regulatory minimum requirements since June 2018. We are affirming our 'BB/B' foreign currency issuer credit ratings on IDBI Bank, and the 'BB' long-term issue rating on the notes issued by the bank's Dubai branch. We are removing the ratings from CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications on Aug. 17, 2018. The stable outlook on IDBI Bank reflects our expectation that the capital infusion will help the bank meet its regulatory capital on a sustained basis. We also believe that the likelihood of government support to the bank is very high. SINGAPORE (S&P Global Ratings) Ja

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