Ratings On Ausdrill And Barminco Holdings Raised To 'BB' And Removed From CreditWatch After Acquisition; Outlook Stable

Ausdrill has completed its acquisition of Barminco, which was funded via a scrip offering and cash. In our view, the acquisition should improve Ausdrill's operating scale, service and commodity diversity. As such, we are raising the long-term issuer credit rating on Ausdrill to 'BB' from 'BB-', issue rating to 'BBB-' from 'BB+' on the senior secured debt, and issue rating to 'BB' from 'BB-' on the senior unsecured debt. At the same time, we are raising the ratings on Barminco and its debt to 'BB' from 'B', in line with the Ausdrill rating because we consider Barminco to be a core subsidiary of Ausdrill. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Ausdrill will continue to generate positive free operating cash

...+ Ausdrill has completed its acquisition of Barminco, which was funded via a scrip offering and cash. In our view, the acquisition should improve Ausdrill's operating scale, service and commodity diversity. + As such, we are raising the long-term issuer credit rating on Ausdrill to '##' from '##-', issue rating to '###-' from '##+' on the senior secured debt, and issue rating to '##' from '##-' on the senior unsecured debt. + At the same time, we are raising the ratings on Barminco and its debt to '##' from 'B', in line with the Ausdrill rating because we consider Barminco to be a core subsidiary of Ausdrill. + The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Ausdrill will continue to generate positive free operating cash flows, and avoid significant missteps with the integration of Barminco. We also expect the group to grow its order book across its key geographies under the Ausdrill, Barminco, and AUMS brands. MELBOURNE (S&P Global Ratings) Nov. 1, 2018--S&P Global Ratings said today...

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