U.S. specialty apparel retailer Gap Inc. is issuing senior unsecured notes, the proceeds of which it says it plans to use for general corporate purposes, including stock repurchases. We see this as indicative of a somewhat more aggressive financial policy. We are revising the outlook on the company to stable from positive. We are assigning a 'BB+' rating to the proposed senior unsecured notes with a recovery rating of '3' and are affirming our 'BB+' corporate credit rating on the company. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that the company's operating performance will remain stable and that credit metrics will remain somewhat better than our expectations for the ratings. NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) April 7, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings
