LONDON (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) Oct. 19, 1999--Standard&Poor's announced today that its double-'A'-plus long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured ratings on France Telecom remain on CreditWatch, where they were placed on July 16, 1999, with negative implications. This follows yesterday's announcement that France Telecom intends to take a majority stake in German mobile operator E-plus Mobilfunk GmbH (E-plus). Standard&Poor's also affirmed its 'A-1'-plus short-term corporate credit and commercial paper ratings on France Telecom. According to the announcement, France Telecom has reached an agreement with the German companies RWE AG and VEBA AG (double-'A'/Negative/'A-1'-plus) to acquire their 60.25% stake in E-plus for euro (Eur) 7.4 billion (US$8 billion). In addition, France Telecom will have to consolidate about
