The company's past acquisitions have been fairly moderate in size, ranging from bolt-ons totaling less than $500 million to midsize acquisitions costing about $1.5 billion-$2 billion, such as Provimi in fiscal 2016 and more recently EWOS in fiscal 2018. Once the global economic landscape stabilizes (possibly in calendar 2021), Cargill may pursue larger-than-historical M&A to expand into faster-growing markets. Areas of strategic interest include health and nutrition, value-added proteins, bio-industrials, and increased exposure to Asia-Pacific. Although the timing and size of any such M&A is highly uncertain, we estimate that acquisitions closer to $3 million-$4 billion would lead to leverage approaching 2x, which would continue to be within our 2.5x downgrade trigger. The stable outlook reflects S&P Global Ratings' expectation
