OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings said today that it placed on CreditWatch with positive implications its 'B+' long-term corporate credit rating on Spanish hospital operator IDCSalud Holding S. L.U. (IDC). We also placed our 'B+' and 'B-' issue ratings on IDC's senior and second lien facilities on CreditWatch positive.

The CreditWatch placements follow the recent announcement that Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA (FSE) has agreed to acquire IDC for €5.76 billion.

We also affirmed our 'BBB-' rating on FSE today. The rating is not affected by the acquisition as the transaction is consistent with our expectation that it would make purchases to expand its product portfolio.

The affirmation reflects our view that the announced transaction is neutral to our assessment of FSE's business risk profile as strong and that the company will continue to manage its discretionary spending in a manner that will not lead its debt protection metrics to deteriorate beyond the levels we assume under our base case. Specifically, the affirmation reflects our forecast that the company will maintain adjusted debt to EBITDA below 4x.

We aim to resolve the CreditWatch placement upon FSE's successful completion of the acquisition, which is expected in the fourth quarter of 2016 or the first quarter of 2017.