Standard&Poor's ratings and outlook on Tyco International Ltd. (A/Stable/A-1) will remain unchanged following Tyco's announcement of strong earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter and year ended Sept. 30, 2001. During the coming year, challenging market conditions in electronics and telecommunications should be more than offset by robust performance by the healthcare and fire and security divisions, as well as greater contributions from recently acquired operations and continued focus on cost reduction. Cash generation should also benefit from moderating capital expenditures in connection with the TyCom Global Network. Debt leverage has declined following a number of large equity-financed acquisitions, but is expected to increase moderately with a likely swing to more debt-financed transactions in the near term. Although very
