NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 15, 2002--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it assigned its triple-'B'-plus senior unsecured debt rating to Autozone Inc.'s planned $300 million senior note offering due 2012 to be used to refinance existing debt and for general corporate purposes. Standard&Poor's also affirmed its 'BBB+/A-2' corporate credit and 'A-2' commercial paper ratings on the Memphis, Tenn.-based company and revised its outlook to positive from negative. Approximately $1.2 billion of debt is affected by these actions. "The revised outlook reflects the significant operating improvement the company achieved in 2002 and our belief that Autozone's share repurchase activity will be managed so as not to impact credit measures negatively. A rating upgrade could be
