NEW YORK—MMO2, the BT Wireless unit that British Telecommunications plans to spin off in November, has received low-tier investment-grade corporate credit ratings of Baa2 from Moody’s Investors Service and BBB- from Standard & Poor’s.
In the announcements on 18 September, the two agencies also assigned the same ratings to MMO2’s proposed US$5.2 billion debt financing in the form of a senior unsecured bank credit facility due in 2006.
MMO2 has 11 million BT Cellnet customers in the United Kingdom, plus a total of 5 million other subscribers of Viag Interkom in Germany, Esat Digifone in Ireland and Telfort Mobile in the Netherlands. The wireless group also has a mobile Internet and data portal division called Genie.
Assuming BT shareholders approve the spin-off at a special meeting scheduled for 23 October, MMO2 will become a separately listed public company fully responsible for its future funding requirements, including the build-out of third-generation (3G) networks, but not the purchase of the associated spectrum licenses.