MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) April 12, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said that it had placed its 'BBB' long-term and 'A-2' short-term corporate credit ratings on Leighton Holdings Ltd. (Leighton) on CreditWatch with negative implications. The ratings on Leighton's debt issues were also placed on CreditWatch with negative implications. The CreditWatch placements follow Leighton's downgraded profit forecast for fiscal 2011, amid writedowns at some of its Australian and Middle Eastern projects, and the company's proposed equity raising. "Although the proposed equity raising will bolster Leighton's capital structure, we expect the company's funds from operations (FFO)-to-debt ratio in fiscal 2012 to be weaker than our expectation for the 'BBB' rating," Standard&Poor's credit analyst Craig Parker said. "We expect
