...January 27, 2020 - Kirk Beauty One GmbH, parent of German beauty retailer Douglas, is undergoing a business transformation, resulting in constantly lower profitability than we anticipated two years ago and increased investments in light of intense competition. - We expect financial leverage to remain high and free operating cash flow (FOCF) about neutral, leaving limited headroom for any underperformance, also because of the anticipated refinancing of upcoming debt maturities. - We are lowering our rating on Kirk Beauty and its senior secured debt to 'B-' from 'B' and our rating on the senior unsecured debt to '###' from '###+'. The recovery ratings on the instruments are unchanged at '3' and '6' respectively. - The outlook is stable because we expect that management will refinance approaching debt maturities over the next few quarters, while achieving solid sales growth and stabilizing profitability, resulting in at least neutral reported FOCF generation. FRANKFURT (S&P Global Ratings)...
