LONDON (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) March 21, 2000--Standard&Poor's today placed its 'A-1'-plus short-term corporate credit and commercial paper ratings on BASF AG (BASF) and BASF Corp. on CreditWatch with negative implications. This follows the announcement that BASF has signed a definite agreement to acquire American Cyanamid Co. (Cyanamid; not rated), the agricultural subsidiary of American Home Products Corp. (single-'A'/Stable/'A-1'), for US$3.8 billion in cash plus an assumption of debt. The acquisition of Cyanamid comes two weeks after BASF's announcement that it would buy back shares up to the value of euro (Eur) 2 billion. In addition, the group will have to fund fines and lawsuit settlements of more than Eur600 million associated with the resolution of price-fixing charges
