Corning, Inc. (GLW)

[AV8R]

Reuters
S&P affirms Corning Inc's rtgs; stable outlook
Tuesday March 9, 11:34 am ET


(The following statement was released by the ratings agency)
NEW YORK, March 9 - Standard & Poor's Rating Services said today that it assigned its 'BB+' rating to Corning Inc.'s (NYSE:GLW - News) proposed $400 million senior unsecured notes, consisting of a $200 million 10-year and a $200 million 12-year offering under the company's existing shelf registration. At the same time, Standard & Poor's affirmed its 'BB+' corporate credit rating and its other ratings on Corning. Proceeds of the issuance are expected to be used primarily to repay existing debt and for other corporate purposes.

The ratings outlook is stable. Corning, N.Y.-based Corning had total lease-adjusted debt of about $3 billion at Dec. 31, 2003.

"While the debt offering is viewed as a mild positive by improving the term structure of Corning's debt profile in addition to already substantial debt reduction, we remain mainly focused on cash flow and earnings improvement by Corning," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Robert Schulz.

Corning's cash and investment position, along with the company's ongoing and near-term actions on cost reductions, focus on operating cash generation, and continued substantial progress toward profitability, should permit credit metrics to continue to improve toward levels consistent with the rating during 2004.

Corning's business lines include telecommunications, display technologies (liquid crystal display, LCD), and environmental segments.