...+ Kronos Acquisition Holdings Inc. was created to acquire KIK Custom Products Inc. for about US$1.6 billion. + We are assigning our preliminary 'B-' long-term corporate credit rating ratings to Kronos based on the proposed leveraged buyout. + At the same time, we are assigning our preliminary 'B-' issue-level rating to the company's proposed US$850 million senior secured term loan, and our preliminary '###' issue-level rating to the proposed US$390 million senior unsecured notes. + We base our assessment on a "weak" business risk profile, reflecting KIK's improving revenue diversity that supports its steady market positions, and a "highly leveraged" financial risk profile that reflects financial sponsor ownership and credit metrics that commensurate with the category. + The stable outlook reflects our expectation that the leveraged buyout will increase fully adjusted debt leverage to about 8x in the next two years, with modest free operating cash flow that could be used for debt reduction....
