OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'BB-' issue-level rating to Minerva Luxembourg S. A.'s proposed senior unsecured notes due 2026. We also assigned the recovery rating of '3' to the debt, indicating a meaningful recovery expectation (50%-70%; in the lower band of the range) under a hypothetical default scenario.

The parent company, Minerva S. A. (BB-/Positive/--), will fully guarantee the notes, and net leverage impact is expected to be neutral because the company intends to use the proceeds to cover a cash tender offer for any and all of the 2023 outstanding notes and other short-term debt pre-payments. In this scenario, we continue to forecast the company's funds from operations to debt improving close to 20% and debt to EBITDA below 3x over the next few years, while Minerva maintains its strong liquidity.