France-based minerals and specialty materials producer Imerys SA's operational performance benefits from significant diversification and upstream integration into mining, providing profitability resilience, despite cyclical end markets exposure. Moderate leverage and strong recurring free cash flows support the group's intermediate financial risk profile, although we think the announced debt-funded acquisition of Kerneos will cause a slight deterioration in metrics for 2017. We are therefore assigning our 'BBB' corporate credit rating to Imerys. The stable outlook reflects that, despite the announced sizable acquisition of Kerneos, Imerys' comfortable and predictable free cash flows should help steer credit metrics to levels we view as commensurate with the rating within two years. On Dec. 14, 2016, S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'BBB' long-term corporate credit
