FRANKFURT (Standard&Poor's) April 23, 2003--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that the decision by DaimlerChrysler AG (BBB/Negative/A-2) not to participate in a capital increase planned by Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (MMC; CCC-/Watch Neg/--) and to cease further financial support for MMC has no direct effect on the group's credit rating. Although this decision limits the uncertainty about potential future cash contributions from DaimlerChrysler into MMC, it also brings into question a key component of Chrysler's turnaround strategy to improve its cost structure by sharing platforms and procurement activities with MMC. It is not clear to us that MMC will--under all potential scenarios--meet its contractual requirements. In view of these uncertainties, Standard&Poor's views this development as slightly