S&P assigns B to BME facility

S&P said it assigned a B rating to BME Group Holding BV’s new term loan due December 2029. BME plans a partial extension of the maturities on its term loan A and term loan B to proactively optimize the capital structure.

“Although the transaction is leverage neutral, we forecast that BME's leverage will increase to about 6.7x-6.9x in 2023 from 5.9x in 2022, due to the challenging operating environment, and moderate to about 6.5x in 2024.

At the same time, we anticipate that BME will continue generating solid free operating cash flow (FOCF), while prioritizing deleveraging in 2024, supported by EBITDA growth following lower earnings this year,” the agency said in a press release.

S&P said it changed its outlook on BME to stable from negative, affirmed the B long-term issuer credit and issue ratings on BME and its existing debt.

“The stable outlook reflects our expectation that BME will continue generating solid FOCF of at least €100 million while maintaining healthy margins and a financial policy focus on deleveraging, with leverage declining to about 6.5x next year,” the agency said.

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