MILAN (Standard&Poor's) Dec. 3, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on Schneider Electric S.A. (A-/Stable/A-2) are unaffected at this stage by the company's proposed acquisition of the transmission and distribution business of AREVA (A/Stable/A-1) in a joint bid with Alstom S.A. (BBB+/Watch Neg/A-2) announced Dec. 2, 2009. On the basis of available information, we currently view the prospective impact on the company's credit quality as marginally negative, but not significant enough to revise the ratings or outlook negatively at this stage. The stable outlook has become more fragile, however. We will shortly review the ratings on Schneider, and the prospective acquisition will be taken into consideration. Negative revisions of other parts of
