CHICAGO (Standard&Poor's) Jan. 30, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on Richmond, Va.-based Altria Group Inc. (BBB/Stable/A-2) are unaffected by the company's announcement that it will suspend its $4 billion share repurchase program (of which $1.2 billion of shares have been repurchased to date). We expect share repurchases will remain on hold at least through 2009, although Altria has indicated that it will reevaluate its share buyback program in early 2010. Altria recently completed its acquisition of UST Inc. for a total consideration of $11.7 billion (including about $1.3 billion of assumed UST debt), and is focused on reducing the remaining amount of its short-term bridge financing related to the transaction. Since
