S&P cuts Kantar

S&P said it downgraded Kantar Global Holdings Sarl to B- from B and removed it from CreditWatch with negative implications. Kantar plans to secure about $900 million in new senior secured debt to help it finance the acquisition of Numerator.

“The downgrade reflects our expectation that Kantar's adjusted debt to EBITDA will exceed 10x in 2021 and 8x in 2022. Prior to the acquisition announcement, our B rating on Kantar had a negative outlook with minimal headroom. We also expected that despite the recovery in Kantar's operating performance following the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the group's leverage would be above our guidance for the B rating in 2021,” S&P said in a press release.

“As a result, even excluding the impact of the proposed transaction, we forecasted that Kantar's leverage would remain above 9x in 2021, and cash flow generation would be weak,” the agency said.

The outlook is stable.

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