NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) April 29, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on Caterpillar Inc. (A/Stable/A-1) are unaffected by the company's first-quarter earnings announcement in which the company stated it believes it will have sufficient cash available to minimize or eliminate the need for new equity to complete its planned acquisition of Bucyrus International Inc. (BB+/CW Positive/--). When the transaction was initially announced, Caterpillar had indicated that it could use up to $2 billion of new equity to fund the $8.6 billion transaction (including net debt acquired). Its first-quarter operating results were strong, with reported machinery and power system sales up 63% from the prior year and solid cash flow generation increasing cash
