SAN FRANCISCO (S&P Global Ratings) Sept. 6, 2022--S&P Global Ratings today said that Church&Dwight Co. Inc.'s (C&D; BBB+/Stable/A-2) planned acquisition of acne treatment company, Hero Cosmetics, for $630 million, will temporarily increase its pro forma leverage to approximately 2.3x from 2.1x for the 12 months ended June 30, 2022. C&D will fund the acquisition with debt and equity. The acquisition, along with the company's recently reduced revenue guidance, decreases the company's cushion relative to our downgrade threshold of 2.5x. Nonetheless, we expect the company to reduce its leverage to around 2x within the next year, assuming the base business' performance does not deteriorate substantially. The company's lowered revenue guidance reflects softness in its more discretionary durables products such
