The rating on Luxembourg-based visitor attractions operator Merlin Entertainments S.a.r.l. (Merlin) reflects Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' assessment of the group's "highly leveraged" financial risk profile and "fair" business risk profile. Merlin's high debt leverage, relatively high capital expenditure (capex), and significant operating lease liabilities underpin our view of the group's financial risk profile as "highly leveraged." We estimate that Merlin's Standard&Poor's-adjusted debt-to-EBITDA ratio will be slightly less than 5.5x by the year ending Dec. 31, 2012, including the completion of the acquisition of Living and Leisure Australia (LLA), the owner and operator of a range of leisure attractions in Asia Pacific and Australia. Mitigating Merlin's highly leveraged capital structure is our assessment of the group's liquidity profile
