S&P: Wimm on positive watch

Standard & Poor's said that it placed Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC's BB- long-term corporate credit and ruAA- Russia national scale ratings on CreditWatch with positive implications.

The CreditWatch placement reflects uncertainty about the potential implications of PepsiCo Inc.'s intention to acquire a 66% interest in Wimm-Bill-Dann for $3.8 billion, S&P said.

The ratings on Wimm-Bill-Dann are constrained by the company's limited geographic diversity, exposure to a volatile emerging-market economy, intense competition with international and local producers, low profitability and an increasingly aggressive financial policy, S&P said.

The ratings are supported by Wimm-Bill-Dann's leading position in Russia's dairy products market, its countrywide production and distribution coverage and currently adequate liquidity, the agency said.

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