OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings today assigned its 'BBB-' issue-level rating to Houston-based tower operator Crown Castle International Corp.'s (CCI) proposed senior unsecured notes due 2021 (amount to be determined). We expect the company will use proceeds from the offering to repay all $500 million outstanding of its senior secured notes due 2017.

Our 'BBB-' corporate credit rating and stable outlook on CCI are unchanged, since we don't expect the transaction to materially affect leverage. We continue to expect that adjusted debt to EBITDA will remain below 6.5x in 2016, our threshold for the current rating, and absent any meaningful debt-financed acquisitions, will remain below that level over the next few years.