Etalon Group PLC is now the sole owner of Leader Invest JSC after closing the acquisition of the remaining 49% it does not own in the Russian residential real estate company from Sistema PJSFC.

Etalon Group Co. AO acquired the remaining stake for 14.6 billion rubles.

Sistema sold 51% of the share capital of Leader Invest to Etalon in February.

Sberbank provided an eight-year credit line to finance the acquisition.

Meanwhile, S&P Global Ratings placed Etalon's core and main operating subsidiary CJSC LenSpetsSMU's B+ rating on CreditWatch with negative implications. The action reflects the rating agency's view that the debt-funded acquisition will likely increase the buyer's Ratings-adjusted debt-to-EBITDA ratio above 3.0x.

Ratings affirmed Leader Invest's B/B rating and revised the outlook to stable from positive. The stable outlook reflects Ratings' expectation that the integration of the acquired business will progress successfully and Leader Invest will maintain adjusted debt-to-EBITDA below 4.0x. Ratings expects Leader Invest's standalone credit quality to remain unchanged.

As of Aug. 15, US$1 was equivalent to 66.19 Russian rubles.

This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings.