NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Sept. 9, 2005--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services placed its 'A+' long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on one of the world's leading agribusiness companies Cargill Inc. and related entities on CreditWatch with negative implications. Negative implications means that the ratings could be affirmed or lowered after Standard&Poor's completes its review. At the same time, Standard&Poor's affirmed its 'A-1' short-term corporate credit and commercial paper ratings on the Minneapolis, Minn.-based company. The CreditWatch placement follows Degussa AG's (BBB+/Negative/A-2) announcement that it has an agreement to sell its food ingredient operations to Cargill for $670 million. The transaction is contingent on the approval of Degussa's Supervisory Board and regulatory authorities. The
