MILAN (Standard&Poor's) May 14, 2003--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it had raised its long- and short-term corporate credit ratings on French telecommunications provider France Telecom S.A. (FT) to 'BBB' from 'BBB-', and 'A-2' from 'A-3', and had raised its long-term corporate credit rating on FT's mobile-phone subsidiary Orange S.A. to 'BBB' from 'BBB-'. At the same time, the ratings were removed from CreditWatch, where they had been placed on March 24, 2003. The outlook is positive. The action follows FT's recent €15 billion rights issue and Standard&Poor's review of the new management's business strategy for the group, as well as the debt-reduction potential arising from its plan to boost cash flow generation during
