The ratings on German heavy building materials manufacturer HeidelbergCement AG reflect Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' view of the group's highly leveraged financial risk profile, with its substantial, albeit improving, debt leverage, and still depressed end-market conditions. Together, these factors translate into weak cash flow metrics that now represent what we see as the main constraint on the ratings. Partly offsetting these constraints is HeidelbergCement's satisfactory business risk profile, which we consider credit supportive. This is underpinned by HeidelbergCement's leading market shares, robust size, broad diversity, and strong vertical integration. Further support for the ratings comes from favorable industry characteristics such as relative price resistance despite currently intense volume pressures, and the local nature of the group's markets. In the
