PARIS (Standard&Poor's) May 6, 2003--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it had revised its outlook on French environmental services utility Veolia Environnement S.A. (VE; previously known as Vivendi Environnement S.A.) to positive from stable based on material improvement in the company's credit quality in 2002, thanks to reduced debt and improved cash flow. At the same time the 'BBB+' long-term and 'A-2' short-term corporate credit ratings on the company were affirmed. VE's credit metrics improved significantly in 2002: The ratio of funds from operations (FFO) to average adjusted net debt rose to 17% (up from 15% in 2001), thanks to double-digit growth in FFO and lower year-end debt levels (€15.8 billion in 2002, down from €17.6
