...Distressed Debt Exchange: Ideal Standard International SA's distress debt exchange has had a positive impact on the group's liquidity and debt service, given the EUR50m in new super senior `AA' notes and the PIK capital structure. Ideal Standard International SA (Ideal Standard) was downgraded to `RD' and simultaneously upgraded to `CCC' in September 2014, following the debt exchange offer for its EUR275m senior secured notes due 2018 and the expiry of flip-back options. The exchange offer constituted a distressed debt exchange under Fitch Ratings' criteria, because investors faced a reduction in terms and the offer was effectively coercive, given that the issuer required additional liquidity. Unsustainably High Leverage: Leverage constrains the ratings and remains unsustainably high. Fitch forecasts FFO adjusted leverage firmly in the double digits over a four-year horizon. The group's new PIK structure will facilitate FCF generation from 2015, as 2014 will be burdened by one-off restructuring...
