FRANKFURT (Standard&Poor's) Feb. 3, 2012--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on Austrian telecommunications operator Telekom Austria AG (BBB/Stable/A-2) are not immediately affected by the acquisition of assets from mobile operator Orange Austria Telecommunication GmbH for a total of up to €390 million. This is because we anticipate that the acquisition will only slightly increase Telekom Austria's leverage to about 2.7x-2.8x debt to EBITDA (as adjusted by Standard&Poor's) by year-end 2012, from 2.6x as of Sept. 30, 2011. This is within the range we view as rating-commensurate, albeit at the upper end. Furthermore, in our current base-case assessment, Telekom Austria has the ability to gradually reduce its leverage through discretionary cash
