Netherlands-based general merchandise and food retailer Hema has refinanced its capital structure by issuing €250 million senior secured floating-rate notes, €315 million senior secured fixed-rate notes, and €150 million senior unsecured notes. We view Hema's business risk profile as fair and its financial risk profile as highly leveraged. We are assigning our 'B+' long-term corporate credit rating to Hema and rating its debt. The stable outlook reflects our view that Hema's profitability will likely improve following the implementation of its cost-saving strategy and that Hema should be able to continue generating positive free operating cash flow and maintain credit metrics commensurate with the rating. MOSCOW (Standard&Poor's) July 14, 2014--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today assigned its 'B+' long-term
