U.S. arts and crafts retailer, The Michaels Companies Inc. continues to demonstrate solid operating performance throughout the past few quarters with a commitment to deleveraging. We are raising all ratings by one notch, including the corporate credit rating to 'B+' from 'B'. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that credit protection measures will continue to improve over the next two years stemming from a combination of EBITDA growth and debt repayment, but will remain toward the weaker end of an "aggressive" financial risk profile. On April 2, 2015, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services raised its corporate credit rating on Irving, Texas-based The Michaels Companies Inc. to 'B+' from 'B'. The outlook is stable. At the same time, we raised our
