NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Nov. 28, 2001--Standard&Poor's today assigned its single-'A'-plus senior debt rating to Allstate Corp.'s (Allstate) $550 million, five-year notes issuance, which was sold at a 5.375% coupon rate. Allstate intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to fund the redemption of approximately $550 million of 7.95% junior subordinated deferrable interest debentures, Series A on its balance sheet. In turn, all 22 million shares of the 7.95% cumulative quarterly income preferred securities, Series A, issued by Allstate Financing I in 1996, will be redeemed on Dec. 7, 2001. After the transaction, Allstate's financial leverage (i.e., debt plus preferred as a percent of capitalization) is expected to remain unchanged at a level below 20%.
