Standard & Poor's Ratings Services placed all of its ratings, including its 'BB-' corporate credit rating, on B&G Foods (NYSE: BGS) on CreditWatch with negative implications.

We estimate that B&G had roughly $1 billion in adjusted debt outstanding as of July 4, 2015.

The CreditWatch placement follows B&G's announcement that it will be acquiring he Green Giant and Le Sueur brands from General Mills for about $765 million. B&G intends to fund the acquisition with revolver borrowings and new incremental term loans.

"We believe the transaction could weaken B&G's credit protection measures beyond our rating expectations at the 'BB-' level," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Bea Chiem. "Still, we believe that the Green Giant acquisition would modestly strengthen B&G's competitive advantage with further product diversity, entry into a new category, frozen foods, and greater scale."

Standard & Poor's will resolve the CreditWatch listing following our review of the impact of the acquisition on B&G's business and financial risk profile as well as the company's ability and willingness to reduce debt to EBITDA to below 5x within 12 months following the acquisition. Upon completion of our review, the ratings for B&G could remain unchanged or be lowered by one notch.