The rating reflects Adecco S.A.'s leading business positions in the highly competitive personnel-services industry, strong operating-performance track record, and adequate capital structure. These factors are partially offset by the company's acquisition orientation and exposure to economic cycles. Adecco is the world's largest personnel-services firm, with sales of Swiss franc (SFr) 27.2 billion ($18.4 billion) at year-end 2001 and leading positions in eight of the thirteen largest markets. In particular, since its 1999 acquisition of Olsten, Adecco is the largest staffing-services company in the U.S.--the industry's largest market--and the worldwide leader in IT staffing. The company's operating performance, while more or less tracking economic cycles, has been steadily improving over the past few years, owing to Adecco's increasing scale, geographical, and
