Eastman Chemical Co. has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Taminco Global Chemical Corp. in an all-cash transaction valued at about $3 billion. This amount includes $1.8 billion of equity value and $1 billion of net assumed debt. We expect the acquisition to be financed with debt, which would lead to a considerable increase in leverage and significant deterioration in key credit measures from the current level. We have revised our outlook to negative from stable, and affirmed our 'BBB' corporate credit and other ratings on the company. The negative outlook reflects a one in three chance we could lower the ratings if the company is unable to sustain a funds from operations (FFO) to adjusted
