Cincinnati Bell Inc, Cincinnati, Ohio has taken a hit from Standard & Poor’s Corp, which lowered its rating on the phone company’s senior unsecured debt to A-minus from single-A and on its commercial paper to A-2 from A-1, affecting about $630m of debt.The downgrade reflects the debt incurred in acquiring WATS Marketing and the company’s increasingly riskier business profile as it seeks to generate higher proportions of its turnover from diversified activities. The action also reflected the poor performance of Cincinnati Bell Information Systems over the last three years: this software and services unit comprises a significant portion of the company’s diversified activities, the ratings agency noted, adding that the outlook is now stable. The rating would have been lowered further but for the credit quality of Cincinnati Bell’s telephone operations and the renewal of the cellular billing contract with McCaw Cellular Communications Inc.
