U.S. food distributor KeHE Distributors Holdings LLC has entered into an agreement to acquire Nature?s Best for a total purchase price up to $206.5 million. We are lowering our corporate credit rating to 'B' from 'B+' and our issue-level rating on the existing $200 million second-lien notes to 'B-' from 'B'. Our '5' recovery rating is unchanged. We are also assigning a 'BB-' issue-level rating and '1' recovery rating to the company?s upsized $400 million asset-backed lending (ABL) revolving credit facility. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that KeHE will be able to successfully integrate Nature?s Best. However, the additional debt incurred will weaken the company?s key credit protection measures for at least the next year. NEW YORK (Standard&
