NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) April 26, 2002—Standard&Poor's said today that it assigned its single-'A'-plus rating to Cargill Inc.'s $500 million senior unsecured notes due June 1, 2012. Cargill is one of the world's leading agribusiness companies. Standard&Poor's affirmed its single-'A'-plus long-term and 'A-1' short-term corporate credit ratings on the company. The outlook is negative. Minneapolis, Minn.-based Cargill has approximately $7.6 billion of debt. "The outlook reflects the risk of integrating recently acquired Cerestar S.A.'s operations with Cargill's. Additionally, there is limited financial flexibility for future acquisitions unless there is an offsetting divestiture," said Standard&Poor's credit analyst Jayne Ross. "Inability to achieve these goals could further weaken credit measures and result in a review
