Arkema S.A. plans to buy adhesives maker Bostik for €1.74 billion (enterprise value), leading to a weakening of credit metrics. However, we expect the acquisition to be largely funded with equity, and we believe Bostik's resilient operations will strengthen Arkema's portfolio. We are therefore affirming our 'BBB/A-2' ratings on Arkema but revising the outlook to negative from stable. The negative outlook reflects risks to our base-case scenario for Arkema in 2015-2016, owing to limited leeway for the funds from operations (FFO) to debt ratio, which we forecast will just meet our minimum for the rating in 2015 before increasing in 2016. PARIS (Standard&Poor's) Sept. 24, 2014--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it had revised its outlook
