S&P lifts Cerved

Standard & Poor’s said it raised the long-term corporate credit rating on Cerved Group SpA to BB- from B.

The agency also said it removed the rating from CreditWatch with positive implications, where it was placed in June.

S&P also said it raised the rating on Cerved’s €300 million senior secured fixed-rate notes due 2020 to BB- from B.

The agency also raised the rating on the €230 million subordinated notes due 2021 to B from CCC+.

The rating on the company’s €250 million senior secured floating-rate notes due 2019 was withdrawn because they have been repaid, S&P said.

The upgrades follow the completion of Cerved’s initial public offering June 21, which raised €230 million of additional capital that the company used to de-leverage its capital structure, the agency said.

Cerved’s main shareholder and private equity owner, CVC Capital Partners, has reduced its shareholding to about 57% as part of the IPO, S&P added, and could further lower its stake to about 50.8% if a greenshoe option is exercised within the next few weeks.

Cerved has not publicly articulated its financial policy, but the agency said it expects it to keep the current capital structure unchanged.

Any future acquisitions also are expected to be modest in size and financed with internal cash generation, S&P said.

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