NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Nov. 15, 2001--Standard&Poor's today assigned its 'A' rating to Duke Energy Corp.'s $750 million equity units. Each equity unit will initially consist of a purchase contract for newly issued shares of Duke Energy's common stock and $25 in principal amount of senior notes due 2006 of Duke's wholly-owned subsidiary, Duke Capital Corp. The rating on the equity units is based on the senior notes that serve as collateral and are issued by Duke Capital. The net proceeds of the offering will be used to fund a portion of the cash consideration for the proposed acquisition of Westcoast Energy Inc. The outlook is stable. Standard&Poor's rating analysis gives credit to common equity
