Danaher Corp. Rating Lowered To 'BBB+' From 'A', Removed From CreditWatch Negative

Life sciences company Danaher Corp. has completed its acquisition of General Electric Co.'s biopharma business (now known as Cytiva) for $21.4 billion (including an assumption of roughly $400 million in pension liabilities). The transaction, funded with a combination of cash and debt, significantly increases Danaher's adjusted net leverage. We project it to be roughly 3.7x at the end of 2020, dropping to the 3x area by end of 2021, versus roughly 2.5x the company previously maintained. We are lowering our issuer credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on Danaher to 'BBB+' from 'A' and our short-term and commercial paper rating to 'A-2' from 'A-1'. The ratings have been removed from CreditWatch, where they were placed Feb. 25, 2019, with negative

...April 1, 2020 - Life sciences company Danaher Corp. has completed its acquisition of General Electric Co.'s biopharma business (now known as Cytiva) for $21.4 billion (including an assumption of roughly $400 million in pension liabilities). - The transaction, funded with a combination of cash and debt, significantly increases Danaher's adjusted net leverage. We project it to be roughly 3.7x at the end of 2020, dropping to the 3x area by end of 2021, versus roughly 2.5x the company previously maintained. - We are lowering our issuer credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on Danaher to '###+' from 'A' and our short-term and commercial paper rating to 'A-2' from 'A-1'. The ratings have been removed from CreditWatch, where they were placed Feb. 25, 2019, with negative implications on the announcement of the acquisition. The outlook is stable. - We believe the acquisition is highly complementary to Danaher's position in the attractive and expanding bioprocess development and manufacturing...

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