U.S.-based landscape supply distributor SiteOne Landscape Supply Inc., majority owned by private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier&Rice (CD&R), is pursuing a dividend recapitalization transaction that will be funded with a new $250 million first-lien term loan. Since we first assigned a corporate credit rating to SiteOne in September 2015, the company has experienced stronger-than-expected operating results and lower debt leverage. As a result, we are raising our corporate credit rating on the company to 'B+' from 'B'. At the same time, we are assigning a 'BB-' issue-level rating to the company's proposed first-lien term loan. The recovery rating is '2'. The outlook is stable, reflecting our view that SiteOne will maintain adjusted debt to EBITDA between 3x and 4x
