NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 29, 2008--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it placed its ratings on Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool Corp., including its 'BBB' long-term and 'A-2' short-term corporate credit ratings, on CreditWatch with negative implications, meaning that we could lower or affirm the ratings on the completion of our review. If we lower the corporate credit rating or revise the outlook to negative at the current 'BBB' rating level, we would also lower the 'A-2' short-term corporate credit and commercial paper ratings to 'A-3'. Whirlpool had about $3 billion of reported debt as of Sept. 30, 2008. "The CreditWatch placement reflects Whirlpool's significant decline in operating income in the third-quarter-ended Sept. 30, 2008 and its
