Mehiläinen is the leading privately owned operator of health care services in Finland, a market that benefits from a favorable regulatory environment. We expect Mehiläinen's S&P Global Ratings-adjusted leverage to be below 7.5x over the next 12-24 months, benefiting from increasing EBITDA. We are assigning our preliminary 'B' issuer credit rating to Mehiläinen. The stable outlook reflects our view that Mehiläinen will continue to grow organically through greenfield developments and semi-organically through smaller bolt-on acquisitions, while strengthening its operating margins, leveraging its track record of integrating acquired facilities, and rolling out new services. On June 21, 2018, S&P Global Ratings assigned its preliminary 'B' long-term issuer credit rating to Terveys-ja hoivapalvelut Suomi Yhtymä Oy, the parent company of Finland-based private
