NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) July 27, 2006--Owens Corning (D/--/--) today announced a plan to form a reinforcements and composites joint venture with Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. (BBB+/Negative/A-2). Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said that its plan to assign its 'BBB-' corporate credit rating to Owens Corning (D/--/--), when the company emerges from bankruptcy, is unaffected by the announcement. We believe Owens Corning's business risk profile will remain satisfactory because the company will own a majority (60%) stake in a larger business that has more geographic and end-market diversity than its building products businesses. In addition, Owens Corning will retain certain of its value-added fabricated products. The glass fiber reinforcement industry is highly competitive, fragmented, and suffers from excess capacity,
