Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that the ratings and outlook on Switzerland-based global food group Nestle S.A. (AAA/Negative/A-1+) were not affected by the company's announcement of the €560 million ($606 million) acquisition of the Powwow company, a leading player in the fragmented and fast-growing European home-and-office delivery (HOD) water market. This acquisition will strengthen Nestle's position in Europe in the HOD segment, which currently only represents 3% of the total bottled water market (compared with about 40% in the U.S.) but is growing by about 15%-20% per year. Although Nestle is likely to make more add-on acquisitions such as Powwow in the future, it is fundamentally expected to deleverage on the back of its superior free cash flow
