BOSTON (S&P Global Ratings) May 20, 2019--S&P Global Ratings today said that it views TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P.'s (TCP) investment in Naperville, Ill.-based KeHE Distributors Holdings LLC (B-/Stable/--) as a slightly credit negative transaction. KeHE, a specialty food distributor structured as an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), is issuing preferred stock to TCP and drawing on its asset-based lending (ABL) facility to fund the redemption of Prudential Capital's minority ownership stake. Due to the terms of the preferred equity and our view that it will not remain a permanent fixture of the company's capital structure, we include it in our calculation of KeHE's adjusted debt. Pro forma for the transaction, we estimate the company's adjusted debt to EBITDA to be
