S&P ups some Heinz notes, lowers Kraft paper

Standard & Poor’s said it assigned its BBB- corporate credit rating to the Kraft Heinz Co. and removed all of its ratings on both the H.J. Heinz Co. and Kraft Foods Group Inc. from CreditWatch, where they had been placed with positive implications for Heinz and negative implications for Kraft on March 25 following the companies’ merger announcement.

The outlook is positive.

S&P also raised the ratings on Heinz’s roughly $3.1 billion rollover debt tranches to BBB- and withdrew the recovery ratings on certain issues:

S&P lowered the following issue-level ratings on Kraft's $8.6 billion rollover debt tranches to BBB-. Those debt issues include the 2.25% unsecured notes due June 5, 2017; 6.125% unsecured notes due Aug. 23, 2018; 5.375% unsecured notes due Feb. 10, 2020; 3.5% unsecured notes due June 6, 2022; 6.875% unsecured notes due Jan. 26, 2039; 6.5% unsecured notes due Feb. 9, 2040; and 5% unsecured notes due June 5, 2042.

“Our rating on the newly formed combined company reflects our view that it will benefit from increased scale and diversity and possibly experience industry-leading operating margins,” said S&P credit analyst Bea Chiem in a news release.

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