Jefferies Finance LLC's Senior Unsecured Debt Upgraded To 'B+'; Issuer Credit Rating Affirmed At 'B+'; Outlook Stable

Jefferies Finance LLC (JFIN) in the last 12 months has increased equity, which has lowered leverage and reduced the ratio of priority senior secured debt to adjusted assets. As a result, we are raising our senior unsecured debt rating to 'B+' from 'B' and affirming our 'B+' issuer credit and senior secured debt ratings. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that leverage will be around 4.5x with adequate on-balance-sheet liquidity and stable funding for less liquid assets. We expect that the firm's origination commitment levels will often be in excess of its own resources, but that it will be able to syndicate most of these prior to funding. We also expect MassMutual and Jefferies Financial Group to continue to support

...+ Jefferies Finance LLC (JFIN) in the last 12 months has increased equity, which has lowered leverage and reduced the ratio of priority senior secured debt to adjusted assets. + As a result, we are raising our senior unsecured debt rating to 'B+' from 'B' and affirming our 'B+' issuer credit and senior secured debt ratings. + The stable outlook reflects our expectation that leverage will be around 4.5x with adequate on-balance-sheet liquidity and stable funding for less liquid assets. + We expect that the firm's origination commitment levels will often be in excess of its own resources, but that it will be able to syndicate most of these prior to funding. We also expect MassMutual and Jefferies Financial Group to continue to support JFIN and that the firm will remain at least moderately strategically important to Jefferies. NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Oct. 24, 2018--S&P Global Ratings said today it raised its rating on Jefferies Finance LLC's senior unsecured debt to 'B+' from 'B'. We...

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