LONDON (Standard&Poor's) July 17, 2006--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on Dutch diversified technology group Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Philips; A-/Stable/A-2) are unaffected by the group's announcement that it has initiated a €1.5 billion share buyback program to be executed over the next 18 months. Standard&Poor's considers that Philips has sufficient financial flexibility to carry out this program given the group's cash balance of €2.5 billion, undrawn loans of €2.5 billion, financial holdings valued at €9.7 billion, and expected seasonally stronger cash flow generation in the second half of the year. Pro forma for payments for the earlier announced cash-funded acquisitions of Intermagnetics General Corp. and Avent Holdings Ltd., totaling
