NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) July 6, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that Covanta Holding Corp.'s plan to acquire seven energy-from-waste plants from Veolia Environmental Services North America Corp. (a subsidiary of Veolia Environnement S.A.; BBB+/Negative/A-2) will not affect the corporate credit ratings on Covanta Holding and Covanta Energy Corp. (both BB-/Positive/--). Covanta will use cash on its balance sheet to fund the acquisition, expected to close by year's end. The seven plants have long-term service fee-type agreements with municipalities, with the earliest contracts expiring in 2014.
