NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) Nov. 1, 2000--Standard&Poor's today affirmed its ratings on Chicago-based FMC Corp. (see list below) following the announcement that the company plans a restructuring, which would result in the separation of its chemicals businesses and machinery businesses into two independent publicly traded companies. The outlook is stable. The affirmations recognize Standard&Poor's view that each of the new companies would have a satisfactory business profile. In addition, Standard&Poor's believes, based on a preliminary assessment, that each company would be prudently capitalized and would adopt financial policies supporting investment-grade ratings on both entities. FMC intends an IPO of up to 20% of the machinery business by second-quarter 2001 and has indicated
