...- Beacon Roofing Supply Inc.'s debt leverage has remained high since it completed the $2.6 billion acquisition of Allied Building Products in January 2018. - Leverage has increased in two of the last four quarters and remains at levels that are weak for the rating (7.1x as of June 30, 2019, including our treatment of $400 million of perpetual convertible preferred equity as debt). - S&P Global Ratings expects Beacon's leverage to improve in the second half of 2019 as acquisitions closed in fiscal 2018 pass the one-year mark and the company pays down debt. However, we expect leverage to remain above 6x. - We are lowering the issuer credit rating on Beacon to 'B+'. - At the same time, we are lowering the issue-level rating on the company's $970 million senior secured term loan and $1.6 billion of senior unsecured notes to '##' and 'B', respectively. The recovery ratings are unchanged. - The stable outlook reflects our view that leverage will remain above 5x into calendar 2020....
