Brazil-based beef producer Minerva has been expanding its operations both internally and through small acquisitions, and improving its cash flow generation. We are assigning our 'BB-' global scale issue-level rating to Minerva's proposed perpetual notes and affirming our 'BB-' corporate credit and debt ratings. We are also raising our national scale corporate credit rating on the company to 'brA' from 'brA-'. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Minerva will improve the operating efficiency of the recently announced acquisitions, increasing its cash flow generation and allowing it to gradually deleverage. SAO PAULO (Standard&Poor's) March 21, 2014--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services assigned its 'BB-' issue-level rating to Minerva S.A.'s proposed $300 million perpetual notes. We also raised our national
