Holcim Ltd

That said, we anticipate Holcim will remain highly disciplined in its discretionary spending to protect its credit metrics, and that it will finance acquisitions and dividends prudently. We factor into that expectation the company's commitment to maintaining credit metrics in line with a 'BBB+' long-term issuer credit rating, track record of conservative financial policies, and ability to generate strong free operating cash flow (FOCF) to support bolt-on acquisitions. The positive outlook reflects that we may raise the ratings on Holcim in the next 12-18 months if its FFO-to-debt ratio remains comfortably above 30%. We could revise the outlook back to stable if Holcim's FFO to debt does not remain comfortably above 30%. This would likely happen if the company pursued

...Holcim delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2021. The company increased like-for-like sales by 16.6% in comparison with the first half of 2020, and 4.9% in comparison with the first half of 2019. Recurring EBIT, as defined by the management, increased by 72.2% on like-for-like basis, reflecting the combination of a strong recovery in volumes across broadly all regions and product groups, as well as Holcim's disciplined price over cost strategy, which successfully mitigated higher input costs, notably energy. We anticipate Holcim will deliver solid results in 2021 and 2022. This reflects our view that the company is well positioned to benefit from the recovery in economic activity and additional demand from stimulus programs and infrastructure projects. In addition, we factor in that the company is well positioned to respond to the growing demand for sustainable building materials products, thanks to its growing portfolio of products with lower carbon footprint. We assume...

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