S&P rates Expro notes B+

Standard & Poor's said it assigned a B corporate credit rating to Expro Holdings U.K. 3 Ltd. and B+ and 2 recovery ratings to the proposed $1,350 million senior secured notes, which will be issued by a special purpose vehicle Expro Finance Luxembourg SCA.

The outlook is stable.

The rating on Expro primarily reflects the group's highly leveraged financial risk profile mitigated by its fair business risk profile, S&P said.

Weaknesses include Expro's high debt, with the relative complexity of its leveraged buyout capital structure, and expected limited deleveraging over the next two years, S&P analyst Karl Nietvelt said in a statement.

Ratings also factor in some uncertainty with respect to the near-term market outlook for subsea services, taking into account Expro's position as a late cyclical player, the agency said.

Ratings also reflect the strength of Expro's leading market position as well as profitability to show a fair degree of resilience, thanks to its low capital intensity, value-added services and its focus on subsea growth markets, the agency noted.

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