Ascend Performance Materials Operations LLC's performance over the past year was much weaker than our initial expectations, and we anticipate recovery will remain slow resulting in elevated leverage metrics in 2024. As result, we lowered our issuer credit rating on Ascend to 'B' from 'B+'. At the same time, we lowered the issue-level rating on Ascend's senior secured term loan to 'B' from 'B+'. The recovery rating is unchanged at '3'(50%). The negative outlook reflects the potential for a slower-than-anticipated improvement in credit metrics relative to our base case, which could result in weaker credit metrics than we anticipate over the next 12 months. The negative outlook reflects the potential weakening of earnings and credit measures beyond what we consider
