Danaher Corp. Ratings Affirmed And Removed From CreditWatch; Outlook Stable

We have reviewed the financial policy of Danaher Corp., a diversified life sciences and technology company, in light of its recent acquisition activity that disrupted our expectation of leverage improving below 2.5x in 2016. We now forecast the company will achieve leverage of less than 2.5x by the end of 2017, because we believe it will limit its 2017 business development activity to small bolt-on acquisitions and use its strong internally generated cash flow to reduce leverage. We are affirming our ratings on the company, including our 'A' corporate credit rating and 'A-1' commercial paper rating, and removing the ratings from the CreditWatch, where we placed them with negative implications on Sept. 6, 2016. Our stable outlook on Danaher reflects

...+ We have reviewed the financial policy of Danaher Corp., a diversified life sciences and technology company, in light of its recent acquisition activity that disrupted our expectation of leverage improving below 2.5x in 2016. + We now forecast the company will achieve leverage of less than 2.5x by the end of 2017, because we believe it will limit its 2017 business development activity to small bolt-on acquisitions and use its strong internally generated cash flow to reduce leverage. + We are affirming our ratings on the company, including our 'A' corporate credit rating and 'A-1' commercial paper rating, and removing the ratings from the CreditWatch, where we placed them with negative implications on Sept. 6, 2016. + Our stable outlook on Danaher reflects our expectation that the company's leverage ratio will improve below 2.5x by the end of 2017 and will remain in that range. We expect spikes over 3.0x to be rare. NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Nov. 23, 2016--S&P Global Ratings today affirmed...

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