On Feb. 7, 2018, Fortum announced the final outcome of its public takeover offer for Uniper SE, resulting in 47.12% of the share capital and the voting rights of Uniper being tendered, corresponding to a cash outflow of about €3.8 billion. The acquisition, still subject to regulatory approvals, will increase Fortum's leverage materially. We now project Fortum's adjusted funds from operations to debt will drop to well below 25% in 2018 from 56% in 2016, and its adjusted debt to EBITDA will jump to almost 4.0x in 2018 from 1.4x in 2016. We are affirming our ratings on Fortum at 'BBB/A-2'. The outlook remains negative, pointing to the uncertainty on the steps Fortum may take to strengthen its balance sheet
