We expect that Minerva's cash flows will improve throughout 2012, on lower cattle prices and higher plant utilization. The company's capital structure has improved considerably as it has reduced its refinancing risks and extended its maturities while maintaining an adequate cash position. We are raising our global scale corporate credit and debt ratings on Minerva to 'B+' from 'B', and assigning a Brazilian national scale corporate credit rating of 'brBBB'. The stable outlooks reflect our expectation of a gradual deleveraging, despite the company's still highly leveraged financial metrics and execution challenges to strengthen cash flows. On March 15, 2012, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services raised its global scale ratings, including the corporate credit rating, on Brazil-based meat producer Minerva S.A.
