OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings today assigned its 'B+' issue-level rating and '5' recovery rating to Sinclair Television Group Inc.'s proposed $350 million senior unsecured notes due 2027. The '5' recovery rating indicates our expectation for modest recovery (10%-30%; lower half of the range) of principal in the event of a payment default.

Sinclair is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hunt Valley, Md.-based TV broadcaster Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. The company expects to use the net proceeds to repay the 6.375% notes. As a result, we expect that leverage, based on average-eight-quarter EBITDA, will remain unchanged in the low-5x area. We also expect that leverage will decline to under 5x over the next two quarters due to EBITDA growth from growth in political advertising and retransmission revenue. We also expect that leverage will remain below 5.5x on a sustained basis.