France-based furniture and electrical goods retailer BUT S.A.S. has announced refinancing plans to issue €380 million of senior secured notes to replace its current debt structure. Although leverage will increase after the transaction, we expect credit metrics will remain within our expectations for the current 'B' rating on BUT. We view the recent ownership change as neutral to the ratings. A recently created holding company Mobilux 2 S.A.S. will be used as the investment vehicle that will acquire BUT. As a result, we are assigning our preliminary 'B' long-term corporate credit and issue ratings to the Mobilux entities and affirming our 'B' long-term corporate credit rating on BUT. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that BUT's operating performance will continue
