Lumen Technologies CFO Targets Investment-Grade Rating After Debt Overhaul

08:04 PM EDT, 09/17/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Lumen Technologies (LUMN) is aiming for investment-grade credit ratings following its debt restructuring, Bloomberg reported Thursday. "We're not going for, you know, triple A," CFO Chris Stansbury said on Bloomberg's Credit Edge podcast. "But we will see, I think, some rating improvements in the coming year." Lumen sits five to six notches into junk territory across the major ratings firms, the report said. Stansbury and CEO Kate Johnson completed one of the largest out-of-court restructurings ever, addressing roughly $20 billion in debt, the report said, with AI hyperscaler demand since boosting investor returns. Stansbury also flagged upside from recycling Lumen's aging copper assets, potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the report.