NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Nov. 24, 2003--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that there would be no effect on NIKE Inc.'s (A/Stable/A-1) ratings or outlook following the announcement that the company's board of directors had increased its quarterly cash dividend 43% to 20 cents per share. NIKE generates a significant amount of operating cash flows, more than $900 million in fiscal 2003. Moreover, Standard&Poor's expects that these cash flows should continue to comfortably fund capital expenditures, dividends, share repurchases, and select niche-filling acquisitions in the intermediate term without affecting NIKE's strong credit protection measures.
