3/19/2010-Shares of Teva Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TEVA) are trading 1.8% higher to $63.12 after Standard & Poor's Ratings Services upgraded the company's ratings a notch to A-, saying its planned takeover of Germany's Ratiopharm expands the generic-drug giant's reach while maintaining modest financial risk.
Thursday, Israel-based Teva emerged as the winner of an auction to acquire Ratiopharm for about $5 billion, propelling Teva -- already top generic-drug company in North America -- to the top of the European generic-drug market as well.
S&P added that only about $2 billion of the Ratiopharm deal's price tag would come from credit lines, leading it to expect Teva's ratio of debt to earnings will not be greatly affected by the transaction.
The ratings outlook is stable.
Keywords: pharmaceuticals S&P poor's upgrade
Ticker(s): TEVA
