NY -- Standard & Poor's CreditWire 11/13/98 -- Standard & Poor's today affirmed its single-'A' corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings, as well as its 'A-1' commercial paper rating, of PepsiCo, Inc. The affirmations follow PepsiCo's announcement that its board authorized the company to proceed with converting a majority stake of its company-owned bottling operations to public ownership through an initial public offering to occur in Spring of 1999. The outlook is stable. At Sept. 5, 1998, about $8.1 billion of total debt was outstanding at PepsiCo. Because of the strategic importance of the bottling operations to PepsiCo and PepsiCo's intention to retain an ownership interest in the new entity, Standard & Poor's will likely analytically consolidate the bottling
