Centel Corp’s $797m acquisition of the United Telesphere cellular and paging operations of United Telecom Inc, using debt and proceeds from divestitures, has not gone down well with Moody’s Investors Service, which reckons that it will have a negative effect on cash flow, earnings and cover, and has downgraded ratings on $400m of the Chicago phone company’s debt, the secured going to Baa-1 from single-A-2, the senior unsecured, Baa-1 from single-A-3, commercial paper to Prime 2 from Prime 1.
